Congress Approves Bailout, Stocks Slip, Banks Surge

President Bush signed into law the controversial financial bailout plan after it was approved by Congress today. Stocks reacted negatively to the news, selling off, after being in positive territory for most of the day, ending a very thorny week. Several banks surged on the news, others sold off in a difficult session. The DJIA ended the day down -157.15 to 10325.70, the Nasdaq fell -29.33 to 1947.39 and the broad based S&P500 gave back -15.03 to 1099.23.

Wachovia Corporation (WB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) soared 56.27% or $2.23 to $6.13/share after Wells Fargo offered $15 billion for the bank angering Citibank who had already offered to buy the struggling company.

Citigroup (C | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) fell 19.73% or $4.44 to $18.06/share after claiming that Wells Fargo's offer to buy Wachovia violated previous purchase agreements.

Global Payments (GPN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) jumped 18.97% or $7.79 to $48.85/share after the business transaction firm crushed analysts earning estimates.

General Growth Properties (GGP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) rocketed 27.40% or $2.08 to $9.67/share after the shopping mall owner bounced back from a massive sell off yesterday by firing its CEO , suspending dividends, and a Wachovia upgrade.

Oil slid .94 cents to settle at $93.03/barrel, gold continued its slide falling $7.80 to $836.80/oz and the VIX gave back .27% to 45.14.

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