absolutely. our other big story this morning, the overnight rioting in britain.รง it s spread from london to other big cities in the uk and police arrested several protesters today, accusing them of attempted murder. later this half hour, a remarkable young woman with a broken leg managed to survive for days in the oregon mountains after taking a life-threatening fall. she says her will to survive kept her going. a very harrowing ordeal. first those bleak numbers from wall street. the dow closed below 11,000, down more than 634 points. that s a plunge of more than 5.5%. nervous investors are looking to the federal reserve to help stop the slide. abc s bianna golodryga begins our coverage. reporter: it s a historic one-two punch. a downgrade and then a massive global stock market sell-off. from tokyo down 2% to london down 3% to new york down almost 6%.
after that ending the day down 634 points. and the fingers kept pointing. congress ultimately owns the credit rating of the united states. they have the power of the purse under the constitution. reporter: republican presidential candidate michele bachmann said it s the president s fault because he hasn t fired tim geithner. the president s refusal to remove treasury secretary geithner shows the president has no plan to restore the aaa credit rating to the united states of america. i think frankly that t ngress should come back early from its recess. we cannot wait until september 7th to figure out the tranche of deficit reduction. the one thing wall street and main street needs most is a plan. reporter: president obama said he hopes there will now be a new sense of urgency in washington. even if democrats and republicans miraculously start seeing things the same way, congress is on vacation for another month. daniel and tanya? scott, thank you. and our coverage of the do
may be some more selling off. absolutely. also ahead, outrage in california where state prison guards get to travel to las vegas for their annual union convention. oh, and by the way, at taxpayer expense. see who s outraged taxpers among a lot of folks and why the guards are actually allowed to do this. it s okay apparently. win-win situation for everyone. the casinos are definitely winning. that s right. later this half hour, why people with smartphones are more likely to develop addictive tendencies. daniel. compared to people who have ordinary cell phones. so i m just trying to like this is let me do a few things on my phone here. you can tap the screen and sending e-mail rob, we re on the air. put that down.n. sorry, sorry. it s a problem for me sometimes. first, doubt has turned to fear for investors on wall street as the dow drops more
this morning on world news now, market mayhem. it was the stock market s biggest drop since the financial meltdown of 2008. how the national debt crisis, money problems in europe and financial uncertainties have slammed wall street and your street. it s friday, august 5th. from abc news, this is world news now. good morning. i m tanya rivero. i m daniel sieberg in for rob nelson. wall street s tremendous drop is already causing a huge impact on markets overseas today. if you haven t checked your retirement account over the past 24 hours, brace yourself for a jolt. we ll break down what s happening as it s basically having this ripple effect in markets around the world. unfolding as we speak. we ll see what happens.
gedeet as the dow drops more relin wg sto abc s karen travers begins good reporter: good morning, daniel. good morning, tanya. today could be another bad day for the economy after that doozy of a day yesterday on wall street. investors are anxiously awaiting today s jobs report. thursday was brutal for wall street. the markets plummeted, finally closing down more than 500 points. that represented the biggest one-day drop since december 2008. in less than two weeks the market has erased all of its gains for the year. in total, some $940 billion worth of investors wealth wiped out. the average 401(k) saw a loss of nearly $12,000. investors are growing increasingly worried. they re concerned about a weakening u.s. economy and the debt crises in europe. the u.s. economy is losing momentum. it shows up in the numbers. investors see those nunumbers a they think, and i think for good reason, ththat it s time to mov to the sidelines. reporter: yesterday the white house pointed the finge