US Economy Loses Ground
The whole market is down at the moment. It is not just individual stocks, it is the whole market. As mentioned last week, Goldman Sachs sees US recession in 2008. The root cause of this is the Subprime Crisis in summer 2007, which leads to the housing downturn. This had indirectly affected most of the retail sector and consumer spending.
Tuesday's big decline is caused by Citigroup's $10 billion loss in the 4th quarter, coupled by Intel missing estimates. IMO, it is not a good idea to buy stocks for the long term right now due to the uncertainty of the US economy and the stock market in general.
Since the beginning of 2008, one green day is usually followed by some red days. Many of the stocks look cheap right now, but could get cheaper. It may be better to buy stocks (long or short) short term due to the volatility. The key is to in and out of the market quickly. Even in this shaky market, there is still money to be made.