Friday morning, investors were confident of only one thing: another day of casualties.
With the opening bell the Dow crashed downward almost 700-points within minutes of the opening bell before heading back up into positive territory.
Despite interest rate cuts and hundreds of billions in rescue plans, economic policymakers are still frantically trying to find an emergency brake for a stock market that has already crashed.
"That what is you look for at a bottom. When all hope is past, when people say I don't care about the price, sell this, I have to get out of it, it's killing me. That's when bottoms are made," said Art Cashin, a trader with USB Securities.
Friday morning, President Bush tried once again to inject confidence in Americans about what the government is doing. "The United States government is acting; we will continue to act to resolve this crisis and restore stability to our markets."
President Bush has spoken publicly about the financial crisis about a dozen times in recent days. Most of those times the market has gone down; Friday was no different.
The Treasury Department is now considering a plan to make direct cash investments in banks, essentially becoming part owners of the banks, which would provide the banks with more money. But many are now looking for a global rescue while investors continue clamoring for the bottom.
Saturday, President Bush will hold an emergency meeting at the white house with leaders from the G7 in an effort to put an end to this global financial crisis.
Markets on both sides of the Atlantic continue to decline, with selloffs worsened by massive losses in Europe, Asia and the United States. It comes amid mounting fears that this week's efforts by central banks and governments to break the log-jam in credit markets have failed.
Within minutes of the European open, shares sank to their lowest levels since 2003. And early Friday the United States' most powerful ally, Great Britain, which is pouring hundreds of billions into its banking system, blamed the US. "We got problems that have come out of America, I am trying to persuade other leaders to do exactly the same thing that we have done so we can get the whole system moving again," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
There is hope the global rate cut will help consumer spending around the world. But that takes time. Many said the world is already in a global recession.
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