I’m not sure that the Fed really helped matters today....
...Meanwhile, in an emergency meeting, the Fed cut the discount by 25 basis points to 3.25% on Sunday. The discount rate is the interest rate at which eligible banks can borrow money directly from the Fed.
In an additional move to increase liquidity, effective today, the Fed created a new lending facility that will provide financing to participants in the securitization markets, such as investment banks.
These developments have created new fears of what may be in store for other financial institutions. National City Corp. (NCC 8.80, -4.35) is down 33%, Cit Group (CIT 11.50, -3.73) has lost 24%, Lehman Brothers (LEH 28.90, -10.36) has slipped 26% and Washington Mutual (WM 9.06, -1.53) has given up 14%.
All of the ten sectors are trending lower. Not surprisingly, financials are the main laggards with a 3.8% loss. The energy sector (-3.4%) is also showing weakness as oil slips 3.0%.
http://finance.yahoo.com/marketupdate/update