"Even before the House voted, credit markets had continued to tighten and by midday many had virtually stopped trading, creating further problems.... Big declines like these often get stock mutual fund managers looking for buying opportunities....
The availability of credit to businesses, from short-term loans to corporate bonds, came under intense pressure or dried up entirely yesterday. For example, after normal trading yesterday morning, corporate bonds - debts issued by companies -stopped trading for a period when the failure of the bailout plan became clear."
Seriously, WHERE have all the BILLIONS in LIQUIDITY BAILOUTS this summer go? Banks KEPT IT ALL, didn't they?! And NOW they want MORE!!!!!
Also see: Economists Say Bailout Bill Won't Work
"Market takes a record plunge" by Steven Syre, Globe Staff | September 30, 2008
This is the same writer who wrote: The "No-Bailout" Bailout
Where is that salt shaker, readers?
The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst one-day point decline in history as investors ran for safety after Congress failed to pass a bailout for the nation's beleaguered financial industry.
The sheer size and scope of losses in the major stock markets left many investors stunned. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 8.4 percent of its value, the most in more than 20 years. The entire stock market lost more than $1 trillion of value just yesterday.
The Dow, an index of 30 of the nation's top industrial companies, gyrated wildly in the 40 minutes that voting in the House of Representatives on the bailout bill was being broadcast on television.
Yeah, THAT has always bothered me: The "health" of the "market" is based upon the 30 RICHEST COMPANIES? Talk about a SKEWED MEASUREMENT!!!!
The bailout defeat reverberated around the world, with stock markets in other regions recording major losses; Brazil's stock exchange was forced to shut down in the afternoon after losses exceeded 10 percent.
The carnage spread to Asia today. All major stock markets in the region tumbled sharply, succumbing to heightened fears of a broader global credit crisis. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index shed more than 544 points, or 4.6 percent, to 11,199.07 after losing 1.3 percent yesterday. Key indexes in Australia and New Zealand were both down about 4 percent, Seoul's Kospi lost 3.5 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 5.5 percent.
Even before the House voted, credit markets had continued to tighten and by midday many had virtually stopped trading, creating further problems for many companies that want to borrow money. Meanwhile prices for commodities, including oil, plunged on fears that a broader, deeper economic recession would reduce demand.
Big declines like these often get stock mutual fund managers looking for buying opportunities. The rout was not limited to financial stocks. Oil companies, manufacturers, and even high-fliers like Apple Inc. and Google Inc. all took a pounding yesterday.
The availability of credit to businesses, from short-term loans to corporate bonds, came under intense pressure or dried up entirely yesterday. For example, after normal trading yesterday morning, corporate bonds - debts issued by companies -stopped trading for a period when the failure of the bailout plan became clear.
"There was just this universal moan," Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the Loomis Sayles Bond Fund in Boston, said of the vote results. "I heard it all around the office and watched the stock market drop like a stone. Everyone was in disbelief and then the corporate [bond] market just stopped trading because no one knew how to price anything."
Meanwhile another barometer of economic sentiment among investors, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of commodity prices took its hardest fall since 1956. --more--"
