And just yesterday, we were commenting in this space how the market resiliently shook off Spain's deteriorating financial situation, weakening consumer confidence, and domestic housing data that, while not as terrible as anticipated, still qualifies as poor. Well, that was fun while it lasted.

Let's take a closer look at how the major indexes are fared and drill down on a few stocks making headlines.

Index

Gain / Loss

Gain / Loss %

Ending Value

Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) (160.83) (1.28%) 12,419.86
Nasdaq (33.63) (1.17%) 2,837.36
S&P 500 (19.10) (1.43%) 1,313.32

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Stocks across the board were hammered, as borrowing costs for Italy and Spain jumped overnight, the euro hit nearly a two-year low versus the dollar, and Treasury yields sank as investors fled toward safe assets. Unsurprisingly, commodities and banking took the brunt of it. On the Dow, ExxonMobil and Chevron both saw 2.6% declines as oil fell 3.7% down to $87 per barrel. Declining oil prices can have an outside effect on small players like ATP Oil & Gas (Nasdaq: ATPG), which saw shares shed more than 4% of their value, or even hopeful liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere (AMEX: LNG), as its investors witnessed an 8% decline.

Dow banking components JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) were down 2% and 3%, respectively, in line with Spain's Banco Santander (NYSE: STD) and its 2.6% decline. While that may seem bizarre since Santander is at the epicenter of a brewing crisis, shares of the Spanish company have lost a quarter of their value so far in 2012, while B of A and JPMorgan are both up year to date.

As the week continues, a boatload of economic data will be released, including new unemployment numbers and GDP estimates tomorrow, so expect volatility to return as May draws to a close.

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