Facebook shares tumble again

Shares of Facebook took another tumble today, continuing a downward spiral that began at the start of the week.

The blame game has already begun with some pointing fingers at Nasdaq, where technical issues created confusion during the first day of trading, and others blaming the lead underwriter of the offering, Morgan Stanley.

After being priced at 38 US dollars, the shares opened at 42.05 dollars on Friday and fluctuated between 45 and 38 dollars throughout the day, before closing up just 23 cents.

The California company's shares began to tumble yesterday and closed down 11%. The losses continued in today's session, with the shares falling 7% to 31.65 dollars before recovering slightly at 32.25 dollars in mid-morning trading.

However, the initial public offering from Facebook occurred the same week that the markets posted their worse performance so far in 2012, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index falling 4%.

It may also be a classic case of investors fleeing risk, as financial turmoil continues in Europe and Asia.

The stock was supported during the first day of trading as underwriters bought up shares to prevent them from falling below 38 dollars.

The Nasdaq OMX Group will be facing shareholders today during its annual meeting and a significant portion of that time will be devoted to the Facebook issue.