Following a roller coaster ride of a trading day on Wall Street, the markers closed in the red for the eighth day in a row.
With the sound of the opening bell, Dow Jones lost 700 points and then briefly recovered as a prelude to the day-long market see-saw.
Adding to the instability of the market and the crumbling of the nation?s major investment banks, auto giant General Motors saw its shares plummet to just under $5 - the company's worst loss since 1950.
In Washington, D.C., President Bush delivered a speech in the Rose Garden, calling the $700 billion rescue plan that was passed last week "aggressive" and big enough to be effective. He added, however, that it will take some time for the economy to recover.
"We will continue to resolve this crisis and restore stability to our markets," Bush said.
The president went on to talk about the possibility of the U.S. Treasury buying up shares in troubled banks and injecting them with capital to unfreeze lending.
Bush is expected to meet finance ministers and central bankers from the G7 industrial nations Saturday in an attempt to come up with a solution to the financial crisis.
"Through these efforts, the world is sending an unmistakable signal: We're in this together, and we'll come through this together," Bush said.
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