From the online Wall Street Journal:
Shares were already lower, but selling in all three indexes picked up after CNBC reported that Sentinel Management Group, a money market fund manager, had asked to halt investor redemptions, suggesting its investors were in a “panic.”
Sentinel’s action “was a pretty drastic thing,” said Stephen Carl, head trader at Williams Capital. The news stirred up the fears about the spreading impact of trouble in the credit markets and alternative investments that have dogged Wall Street for weeks. “It’s just more of the same,” Mr. Carl said.