Stocks Briefly Rally, Then Continue to Fall

Photograph of a monitor at the NYSE yesterday by Richard Drew/AP

Update 11:30 a.m.: Stocks have fallen after a "feeble rally"--right now, the Dow is down 245 points (2.9%) and the Nasdaq is down 2.28% and S&P 500 is down over 3%. An ING investment strategist tells the NY Times, "The realization is dawning on people that we are heading into a recession, and it may not be the short and shallow recession that we had hoped for. The focus has shifted from the financial crisis to the real economy, but the news is not good there either.”

CNBC reports, "The CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, soared to a new record above 80."

Earlier at 9 a.m.: Though Asian and European markets fell today after Wall Street's big drop yesterday, stock futures have jumped with some better than expected news: Jobless claims slightly decreased and inflation is unchanged (Bloomberg News says consumer prices were "restrained by declines in fuel costs, automobile prices and airline fares that show the slowing economy is starting to cool inflation"). Clearly, expecting the worse has some benefits.

Still, housing prices are expected to fall through late 2009, the FDIC chief doesn't like the bailout plan, and banks are expecting things to get worse. Also in the rescue business: Switzerland gave UBS a $59 billion bailout.