Are we in recession now? probably, nobody know yet. Historically how the stock market was correlated with the recession (pre- in - after ) - you may be able to get an idea by checking the charts above...
So where we are?
S&P 500 peaked on 10/19/2007 at 1600 points
Today (01/19/2008): 1325 points, about -17% down as of today.
"The average length of a recession in the post–World War II era has been 11 months, with a range from seven (most recently) to 17 (see table)."
Image1: correlation of stock market and recession
Image2: market performance around recession