The S&P 500 fell again Thursday as it inched closer to a bear market:

The broad market index fell 0.58% to 3,900.79, after falling 4% on Wednesday. The index is teetering on bear market territory sitting about 19% below its record reached in January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 236.94 points, or 0.75%, to 31,253.13 — a day after it too experienced the biggest one-day drop since 2020 in the prior session, losing 1,164 points. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.26% to 11,388.50 — following a 4.7% decline on Wednesday.

Again, increasing volatility is developing investor selling/protectionist behaviors, and conditioning perceptions to see the worst in every little bump and bounce. So as raw numbers flow over the terrain of the economy, pooling in gullies and following valleys, it is important to remember part of that terrain is the human terrain, and the way it molds the environment is molded itself by what is happening.

Someone who gives their money to the banks in a glut is very different psychologically from someone who has seen a bank run, only to find out exactly what fractional banking is when they were told the bank had invested their money somewhere and it had all gone away.