The headlines are ugly. “Late Rally Lifts Stocks After S&P 500 Skims Bear Market,” according to WSJ.com’s top story after Wall Street closed today.  “Markets End Down for 7th Straight Week, Despite Late Rally,” according to NYT.com.

Stocks are at the edge of a bear market – defined as a loss of -20% from the last record-high closing price of the Standard & Poor’s  500 index (on Jan. 3). Not since 2001, The Wall Street Journal says, has the S&P 500 suffered a seven-week losing streak.