The day was wild, with a range of over 1,000 points, and a swing of from almost 400 points down to 300 points higher in the last hour alone, prior to the -128 point (1.4%) finish.

Still, the Dow had its worst week ever, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

President Bush once more tried to stem the tide, by having a brief press conference in the White House Rose Garden, where he said:

"We are a prosperous nation with immense resources and a wide range of tools at our disposal ... We can solve this crisis and we will."

Meanwhile, finance ministers from the world’s richest countries gathered for talks scheduled to take place on Saturday. Bush is to meet with finance ministers from Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Japan.

The word on Wall Street is a simple, four-letter one, and not the only you're thinking of: fear.

Dave Henderson, a floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange for Raven Securities Corp said:

"Fear has been running rampant all over the Street. Fear and greed, that's what rules the Street. I think the carcass has been stripped to the bone."

Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s, said:

“People are scared. Nobody believes what is coming out of the mouths of politicians, chief executives.”

Ryan Atkinson, market analyst at Balestra Capital said:

"Fear is feeding upon itself and nothing the officials have done to this point seems to stem the tide. Central banks of the world have been flooding the markets with liquidity, but banks are hoarding cash. This is the lynchpin of the entire financial system and as long as this is still going on, the markets will be driven by fear."

There's another word with five-letters that fits the bill: panic.

Monday is bound to be interesting, to say the least, following up on the G8 meetings this weekend.