Its not a bad piece in the NY Times, a discussion of the fall in stock markets and "a palpable change in the stories we have been hearing"

Well worth a read.

But ... they've got the causation all wrong. Once that's fixed, its all good!

Its not about stories driving the stock market, that's the wrong way around; what really happens is stock market moves drives the stories.

The market moves, then we search for an explanation. Its called the narrative fallacy, and there is more to it ... this from Nassim Taleb (The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile) (bolding mine):

The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship upon them. Explanations bind facts together. They make them all the more easily remembered; they help them make more sense. Where this propensity can go wrong is when it increases our impression of understanding.

Oh, and before you go and accuse me of being guilt of going looking for explanations of moves, don't bother, mea culpa.