Dow slips below 8,000 on growing fear of deflation

A growing fear of economic deflation helped take the air out of the stock market Wednesday, and another white-knuckle final hour on Wall Street pushed the Dow Jones industrials under 8,000 to their lowest close since the financial meltdown began.

Consumer prices in October took their biggest monthly plunge in the six decades that records have been kept -- a reprieve for shoppers but a danger sign for the economy because falling prices can make a mild recession spiral into something worse.

The drop illustrated once again how quickly the economic danger can shift in tumultuous times like these. The inflation fears that gripped the nation.