The market is down sharply this morning as concerns related to the government’s $700 bailout package continue. Congress and the White House did reach an agreement over the weekend but it seems that Wall Street is disappointed that is still has to go to vote. The House is slated to vote later today and there is some nervousness in the market.

This is a difficult vote because it comes in an election year and there is a chance that the unpopular bailout package is not approved. President Bush was cheer-leading lawmakers to pass the bill, saying it is needed to “keep the crisis in our financial industry from spreading” across the economy.

There are many provisions that are unknown but one that is known is that the government will be authorized to purchase the assets from some of these financial firms and will help financial institutions to resume lending to individuals and businesses.

There is some heavy skepticism with this bill and that is why the market is being jittery. The Dow is down 275 points to 10,868. The Nasdaq is slipping 85 to 2,100 while the S&P 500 is lower by 40 points and is at 1,172. We should know something in a couple of hours concerning the status of the bill but I don’t expect we are going to see the big rebound everyone was hoping for. In fact, if the bill fails we could get a huge drop in the market.

Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com

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