Shares Fall Sharply, Even With Late Rebound

NEW YORK, Oct. 6 -- Wall Street joined in a worldwide sell-off Monday, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest point loss ever during a trading day. Even a big afternoon rally failed to keep the Dow from its first close below 10,000 since 2004.

For the day, the Dow lost 3.58 percent, or 369.88, to 9955.50. Broader indexes also plunged. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 42.34, or 3.85 percent, to 1056.89, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 84.43, or 4.34 percent, to 1862.96.

The sell-off came despite the $700 billion U.S. government bailout package, which was signed into law Friday after two weeks in which traders had appeared to count on the rescue to avoid a market meltdown.

At its worst point, the Dow was down more than 800 points, an intraday record. The market rallied during the final 90 minutes of the trading day.

The Dow industrials are down almost 30 percent from their all-time high of 14,164.53, set a year ago Thursday.

Speculation among traders late in the session that the market's pullback had been severe enough to force the Federal Reserve into taking other steps to soothe the markets helped stocks rebound from their lows.

"If you can't say that we're oversold now, I don't know what you say. You're at least due for a bounce, if nothing else," said Bill Stone of PNC Wealth Management.

In Japan on Monday, the Nikkei average lost more than 4 percent. And then the losses spread across Europe -- nearly 8 percent for the FTSE 100 in Britain, 7 percent for the German DAX and 9 percent for France's CAC 40.

In the United States, President Bush twice made unscheduled remarks on the economy, saying in Cincinnati that the economy would be "just fine" but that the bailout package needed time to work.

Investors moved into longer-term Treasury bonds as they fled the stock market. The yield on the 10-year note fell to 3.45 percent from 3.60 percent late Friday.

Movers

National City fell 95 cents, to $2.56.

UAL, United Airlines' parent firm, lost $1.41, to $6.70.

Ford lost 36 cents, to $3.69.