DOW Drops 249 Points or 2.5%

So much for those big gains yesterday, they are gone today.  The Masters did try to warn you.
Today's Great Reason: Consumer Spending sucks and the Powers-that-be are worried that the economic recovery won't be sustainable.  Kicked right down the hole America.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks plunged Friday, erasing all of the previous day's big gains, as a drop in consumer spending fanned worries that the economic recovery won't be sustainable.

Major stock indexes tumbled more than 2 percent in late afternoon trading, including the Dow Jones industrials, which gave back all of Thursday's 200-point gain. Banks as well as energy and materials companies posted the biggest losses.

As stocks fell, investors moved to safer assets like the dollar and Treasurys. At the same time, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index, known as the market's fear gauge, soared nearly 25 percent to 30.88, the highest since early July. Its historical average is 18-20. It hit a record 89.5 a year ago.

The drop in stocks marked an about-face for the market, which rallied Thursday after the government reported that the economy grew faster than expected in the summer. Much of the 3.5 percent jump in gross domestic product was tied to government spending.

Investors started shedding stocks after the Labor Department said personal spending fell 0.5 percent in September. The drop was in line with forecasts, but it was the largest slide in nine months and followed a 1.3 percent jump in August fueled by the government's popular Cash for Clunkers car rebate program.

The day's report cast further doubt on the economy's recovery, which many economists fear has been driven by the government stimulus measures. Without a rebound in consumer spending, which makes up a major part of the U.S. economy, investors worry the recovery won't last.

With Friday being the last day of the month and the end of the fiscal year for many mutual funds, the market's gyrations could be exaggerated, analysts said. Fund managers looking to minimize taxes for shareholders often sell some of their investments as the fiscal year comes to a close.

The Dow fell 223.93, or 2.3 percent, to 9,738.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 27.30, or 2.6 percent, to 1,038.81, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 48.25, or 2.3 percent, to 2,049.30.

A drop in the mood of consumers added to the day's bad news. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 70.6 in October from 73.5 in September. The reading was revised slightly higher from a preliminary estimate of 69.4 earlier this month, and was roughly in line with expectations.

The Labor Department also reported Friday that personal income, the fuel for future spending, was flat in September compared with the previous month, in line with expectations. A lack of income growth is due, in part, to ongoing high unemployment rates, also a major worry for the market.

"Until we get to better employment numbers, it's hard to get real income growth and real spending ... and we're just not there yet," said Kurt Karl, chief US economist at Swiss Re. "Today is a reaction to a little bit of excess exuberance yesterday."