Local analysts react to stock market plunge

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped almost 1,000 points in less than half an hour Thursday afternoon on fears that Greece's debt problems could halt the global economic recovery.

“If the markets are realizing, if Greece is just an isolated phenomenon, it’s OK. If it’s not, all western countries are going to be affected and that’s what matters at this moment,” said Giovanni Zanalda, an economic history professor at Duke University.

The market's plunge came less than 90 minutes before the end of trading. The AP reported that the Dow's drop was its largest loss ever during the course of a trading day, but it recovered to a loss of 347 at the close. All the major indexes lost more than 3 percent.

There were reports that the sudden drop was caused by a trader who mistyped an order to sell a large block of stock. The drop in that stock's price was enough to trigger "sell" orders across the market.

Many of Joseph Davis' clients tried contacting his office when the market slipped, but he told them not to worry. Davis also made moves to invest in companies with lower than normal prices.

“When you have that kind of volatility there are tends to be great companies that have been kind of thrown out, if you will,” Davis said. “So, we decided to take advantage of that. We did some buying today.”