U.S. Markets Fail To Rally On Bailout Approval

New York, NY (AHN) - Markets shook off bad economic data and traded higher heading into the bailout vote by the House. The bill was passed by a landslide and Bush quickly signed it into law. However, markets seemed to be unimpressed and gave back gains, selling off into the close to finish negative.

The Dow Jones Industrial average, trading 3 percent higher coming into the vote, finished down 157 points or 1.5 percent. Citigroup weighed on the average most, down 18 percent after an announcement was made Wells Fargo would acquire Washington Mutual. It was believed that Citigroup already had a deal in place to acquire WaMu.

The S&P 500 fell 15 points or 1.3 percent. The financial sector was a big reason markets reversed as the sector finished down 4 percent after trading 4.9 percent higher coming into the House bailout vote.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 29 points or 1.5 percent to close at 1,947. Shares of Apple Inc. closed below the $100 mark for the first time in more than a year. The stock saw a huge spike in early trading when an erroneous report surfaced saying Apple chief Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

On the economic front, the Department of Labor said September nonfarm payrolls fell 159,000, much more than the 105,000 drop economists expected. However, the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1 percent in September.

Overall, it was a rough week for the major indices with the Dow Jones Industrials falling 7.4 percent, the S&P down 9.4 percent and the Nasdaq off 10.8 percent.

Next week has a flurry of economic and corporate news due for release. Alcoa is set to release quarterly earnings on Tuesday; their report is widely considered the kick-off of corporate earnings season.