NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's AOL's fault. Well, slightly overstated (hey, that's what I do for a living!), but all eyes were focused on AOL's big powwow with investors in midtown Manhattan. Meeting didn't exactly make investors go and break out the band, if you catch my drift.

To be fair (why do that?), Ford and Nokia also warned about their businesses. You know, like cars and phones! And so, maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise to you, good readers of Street Life, that the Dow fell 119 to 8,742, while the Naz was off 35 to 1,448. (That's down 2.4 percent!) Here we go again?

Hey watch me, Baz Luhrmann (The NEXT genius. Will be going to "La Boheme" this weekend!), I mean Andy Serwer, on CNN's "American Morning with Paula Zahn," and Headline News. Read Loose Change to find out about Carly Fiorina in heaven! Here's wazzup:

STOCKYARD Hey, come on folks! December is supposed to be a GOOD month for the market!...Problem with AOL (parent company of this fair Web site) is that it's considered a bellwether for Internet, media, and entertainment. Those stocks fell. So did Ford and GM. So did techs: MSFT, Lucent (which plans a reverse stock split -- like mother, like daughter!), etc.

Airlines weak...One stock on the move was Corixa, as the FDA said it would reopen a review of the company's cancer drug. Market could use some of that....

MARKET TAKE What's up with the market? Well nothing. A bit of a natural pullback. If anything, it was the amazing rally since early October that was the unnatural act. The market is anticipating a recovery. But at best it will be weak and occur later in 2003.

Do tech stocks deserve to have almost doubled off their bottom? (Cisco, AOL, etc...) I don't think so. It all reminds me of last year, when stocks rallied off the post-9/11 lows. We rallied all the way up to March/April and started to freefall back down, eventually to new lows.

We may not double-dip per se, we may just bump along the bottom here. But even that scenario could be considered rosy, believe it or not.

Consider these two possibilities: #1: Iraq war. And #2: Significant domestic terrorism event. Chances of one of these two things happening (or both) is 85 percent. (I completely made that number up, do you have a better one?) And if we experience one or both of these things, more than likely, BAD things will happen to the economy and the stock market.

I know a quick war in Iraq would be good, etc., but you think it's going to be plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is over there? Will take a while to figure out...And then there's Al Qaeda...

AOL DAY, HOORAY! Geez, if that was AOL Day, how about just not holding it next year?! I mean, it seems to me that an ignorant shareholder (stock closed at $16.57 yesterday), is better than an informed one (stock closed at $14.21 today)! (And by the way, this strategy has been successful before!)

Okay, so there were some things you had to get off your chest, like that revenue growth will fall off a cliff next year. But, not to worry, it will be back in '04. (Don't you love when companies promise that. I mean how do they know?!) And that you're trying to bundle proprietary content. And that you have a plan to move customers to broadband 'n' keep 'em.

Overheard in the Time Inc. cafeteria today: "I am so over AOL. So sick of everyone judging this company on them. Why do people only focus on AOL? There are so many other parts of this company that are great, like movies and magazines and HBO. How big is AOL anyway?" Big enough to cause some enough Sturm und Drang to fill tomorrow's paper, sweetheart. Why am I whistling "Band on the Run"? ("Will search for evermore...")

Larry sent me this from Robin Farley, UBS Warburg Leisure & Gaming Analyst, Re: Carnival Cruise: "Any news story involving the word gastrointestinal is not good marketing for the cruise lines"...

From Mike: "Great show on Oprah's new Oxygen network, 'The Sunday Night Sex Show' with Sue Johanson. Check out her Web site. It's a telephone call-in show based in Toronto, and it's a hoot! Sue is a late-sixtyish woman who looks like the 'Church Lady,' but when she answers viewer questions, she'd make Ruth Westheimer blush. The Web site calls her 'Canada's foremost sexual educator and counselor, recipient of the distinguished Order of Canada.' Now I know what the 'O Canada' means in Canada's national anthem. Not since I read 'Letters to Penthouse' in the early 1970s have I learned so much about...you know." Wow, I went to that Web site. That is, well, frank!...

A joke from Jason: "HP CEO Carly Fiorina dies, and she goes through the usual process of defending her case in front of the Divine Jury. When the jury comes back it turns out she is admitted into Heaven. So Carly is filling in the usual paperwork at the HAO's desk (Heaven Admission Officer): non-disclosure agreement, legal disclaimers, non-competition clause, etc... 'Congratulations and welcome to Heaven,' says the angel finally. 'Go down the corridor, first door on your right.' Carly walks to the door, pushes it open...and staggers back. Through the flames are countless devils inflicting the most horrible tortures to screaming souls. She rushes back to the Officer and waves her admission pass, breathless. 'Must be an error, this thing here says Heaven!' 'Oh yeah,' says the angel, barely looking up from his/her screen. 'Forgot to tell you...we merged.' " Oh, baby!...

I love the Big Ten/ACC challenge myself...How about Julius Peppers, going to lose all that money for Rookie of the Year, etc., because of his suspension!

Andrew Serwer is editor-at-large of Fortune magazine.

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