November 20, 2008 Bad news continues for economy Play video

(NECN/ABC) - Wednesday's dismal performance on Wall Street, widening unemployment, a failing housing market, auto industry bailout woes, and plunging retail sales were not enough to keep investors away from the market this morning.

Echoing overseas results, the Dow opened down well over 100 points. But by mid-morning, it appeared the big sell-off was averted -- at least for today -- and the Dow remained relatively steady, hovering around the 8,000 mark.

The see saw of bad news and good market results, or good news and bad market results continued on Thursday, as new claims for jobless benefits jumped to a 16 year high.

This came the day after the Federal Reserve released minutes from last month's closed meeting that revealed their grim assessment that "significant weakness" in the economy will continue, and unemployment could rise to 7.6 percent.

Combined with the dimmed prospects for an auto industry bailout, stocks plunged, closing below 8000 for the first time in 5 years.

But more and more bad news could not send the markets spiraling, at least not by mid-day.

ABC's Viviana Hurtado reports in the video player above.