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Today was almost a totally depressing day of a bear market, but by the end of the session, it turned out to be less terrible -- just another of bad day rather than a total write-off.

Hopes and rumors of coordinated global rate cuts or some form of coordinated intervention helped stabilize the stock market somewhat by the end of the day. However, the initial shock of Dow below 10,000 rapidly became Dow at 9,500+ before the market recovered sharply from being down 800 points.

The bad thing of today's major selloff is that there was no sense of capitulation and no sense that panic had engulfed Wall Street. Instead, this is just orderly panic where looters and vandals cue up to take action.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 9,955.50 (-369.88; -3.58%)
NASDAQ 1,862.96 (-84.43; -4.34%)
S&P500 1,056.89 (-42.34; -3.85%)
10YR T-Note 3.426% (-0.218%)

National City (NYSE: NCC) was one of the most active of the worst performing banks. Shares were down 27% at $2.54 in the minutes right before the closed.

Today was a great day in anticipation of the bailout, up until the point that traders sold the news. There is still a fear of holding anything into the weekend where bad news comes in the form of takeunder mergers on Monday. Today's jobless rate was 6.1% and the non-farm payrolls posted 9 consecutive declines.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,325.70 (-157.15; -1.50%)
NASDAQ 1,947.39 (-29.33; -1.48%)
S&P500 1,099.24 (-15.04; -1.35%)
10YR T-Note 3.644% (-0.002%)
52-Week Lows
Top Analyst Downgrades

The big news of the day was rather complicated. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has decided to step in and merge with Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) in an all stock transaction for the entire company. Wachovia closed up nearly 60% at $6.21 on over 250 million shares.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) bit the dirt today. It is the potential loser in the Wells Fargo-Wachovia deal and it paid the big price today. Citigroup fell more than 18% to $18.35 on the news and it traded nearly 300 million shares.

Want to see what Warren Buffett said on bailout and bank mergers?

General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP) got a a lift this morning on what many would otherwise consider bad news. The REIT has replaced its chief financial officer and suspended its dividend. Shares were up 27% at $9.70 right at the close today an more than 16 million shares.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) fell almost 5% to $4.14 after it announced plans to sell up to $500 million worth of stock to buy back debt from its credit arm to help shore up its bottom line.

This was another sell-off trading day. Any hopes for a late day rally were met with disappointment. The markets are digesting worse and worse economic news and earnings warnings, and all eyes are watching the House of Representatives tomorrow over the bailout vote. We used a prediction market, and today the bets are still that some bailout bill passes before October 31. The common theme among most stock groups today was easy: selling.

These are today's unofficial closing bell levels, and be advised that official closing bell prints have been coming later and later this week:
DJIA 10,474.41 -356.66 -3.29%
S&P500 1,113.80 -47.26 -4.07%
NASDAQ 1,976.72 -92.68 -4.48%
10YR T-Bond 3.646% (-0.122%)

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was down today with shares down in the last hour after the massive offering. Its secondary raised $12 billion after pricing its secondary at $22.25. Shares were down almost 10% at $22.13 in today's final minutes.

Petro Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, was pounded after Citi took it off the Latin American Focus List. Shares were down over 12% at $38.08 in today's final trading minutes.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was down over 5.5% at $103.82 today in the final minutes of the day on concerns and continued rumors that the company was likely to miss its earnings expectations.

Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) was thrown out with the baby and bathwater today after the company's earnings were short of estimates and over comments about a slowdown in production. Shares were down almost 40% at $41.00 in the final minutes today.

Nabors Industrial (NYSE:NBR) proved that it isn't immune from the market even as an oil company. It also warned on earnings. Shares were down over 8% at $22.00 in today's final minutes of trading.

Today was another tiring day. Stocks gapped down lower and then managed to spend most of the day fighting in negative and positive territory. The ISM data on manufacturing this morning was atrocious and the worst since after the 2001 terror attacks. The Senate is expected to vote on a bailout plan tonight.

Below are today's closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,836.96 -13.70 -0.13%
NASDAQ 2,069.40 -22.48 -1.07%
S&P500 1,161.49 -4.87 -0.42%
10YR T-Bond 3.7680% -0.0590
52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) had been down much worse today after an analyst downgrade raised further liquidity concerns. Then the announcement came that it was selling $12 billion stock to the public and $3 billion in preferred to Warren Buffett. Shares were down 3.4% at $42.15 in today's final minutes.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) rose on further hopes of a Senate bailout package and on higher FDIC deposit limits. It is also expected to price $10 Billion in stock tonight. Shares were up 11.5% at $22.86 in the final minutes of the day.

Volatility is becoming the market's new name. Much of yesterday's 700+ point drop in the DJIA was largely erased as the DJIA was up more than 400 points for most of the last hour today. The markets weren't driven by a bailout package. It was the BELIEF that a new passage would get passed by the weekend. Consumer confidence did come in stronger than expected, although the Conference Board noted that the data cut off date was September 23, before the last round of malaise hit.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,862.61 (+497.16; +4.80%)
NASDAQ 2,082.33 (+98.60; +4.97%)
S&P500 1,163.93 (+57.54; +5.20%)
10YR T-NOTE 3.827% (+0.195)
52-WEEK LOWS
TOP UPGRADES, many moved here.
TOP DOWNGRADES

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) rose after an analyst upgrade this morning. The young adult clothing company was raised to an "Outperform" at FBR. With shares on a year low and having sold off nearly 60% and a P/E ratio of well under 10.0, that brought some interest from Wall Street. Shares were up over 11% at $39.70 in today's final minutes.

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) was one monster mover today. A judge ruled that the private equity firms that walked away could not claim the material adverse change. Shares were up a whopping 70% at $12.59 in today's final minutes.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) rose on a call out of Piper Jaffray as one of several key technology upgrades. The firm raised its Neutral rating to a Buy rating with a $22.00 price target. Shares were up 6% at $18.36 in the final minutes of the trading day.

CMGI Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI) is now ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNK). Shares actually rose over 12% to $10.00 by the final minutes of the trading day.

Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) rose sharply after the communications chip company raised its guidance to EPS of $0.24 to $0.26 vs. $0.15 estimates. Imagine a chip company raising guidance in today's climate. Shares were up 42% at $4.10 in the final trading minutes today on more than 5-times volume.

Today is simple to call, yet painful. This was at one point the worst DJIA point-move down since the 1987 crash of 21 years ago. Congress failed to pass the $700 billion bailout package and ailing banks are continuing to be acquired in virtual "take-under" mergers where shareholders are getting hosed.

Below are today's unofficial closing bell prices:
DJIA 10,372.54 (-770.59; -6.92%)
S&P500 1,108.99 (-104.02; -8.58%)
NASDAQ 1,983.73 (-199.61; -9.14%)
10YR T-Bond 3.632% (-0.195%)

Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB) will survive as an entity, but not as a bank as that is being taken out by an FDIC-backed buyout by Citigroup (NYSE: C). WB shares were down a sharp 82% at $1.76 right before the close with well over 300 million shares trading hands.

Today was all about financial bailout packages being on and off, and on and off, and on and off. Financial stocks were most of the news, but you've heard enough about that you will only hear about non-financial companies today. Q2 GDP was revised lower than original projections, but that number is older than dirt now. The funny thing today was that they started ringing the closing bell on NYSE a minute early on accident.

Below are the unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11,160.49 +138.43 +1.26%
S&P500 1,214.56 +5.38 +0.44%
NASDAQ 2,185.56 -1.01 -0.05%
10YR T-Note 3.827% (-0.035%)
TOP ANALYST CALLS
52-Week Lows

KB Home (NYSE: KBH) posted really ugly numbers with its losses growing four-fold and sales down over 50%. Yet somehow, traders are hoping a bailout will drive the future. Shares were actually up 1.2% at $21.42 immediately before the close.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) was downgraded across the board after its earnings disappointment. Shares were down 26%, or $21.50, right before today's close.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was crushed on R-I-M's disappointing numbers. Shares hit a new 52-week low and were down 10.4% at $9.64 in the final minutes of the day.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) was down over 7% in today's final minutes at $146.57. An analyst downgrade from RBC and a cautious sector call from Citi is to blame. The concern here is easy. Farmers are having their credit cut and they can't afford to pay endless increases in agriculture prices.

Today was another relief trading day on word that Congress has reached a tentative approval of a bipartisan $700 billion financial bailout package. It definitely wasn't from the slew of bad economic data this morning. That was just ugly. Despite poor economic data, bond yields rose as the bailout package will end the flight to quality we witnessed lately.

Below are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11,022.06 +196.89 +1.82%
NASDAQ 2,186.57 +30.89 +1.43%
S&P500 1,209.18 +23.31 +1.97%
10YR T-Note 3.862% +0.091%
52-week lows
Top Analyst Calls

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) was up most of the day, but ex-Chairman Hank Greenberg filed to sell shares in the open market because of personal liquidity issues. Shares were up 19% but had fallen all the way down to almost 10% at $2.97 on this news. So much for him putting together a hostile rescue package of his own.

Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) was up almost 3% at $12.96 right before the close after it received marketing approval from the FDA for its TAXUS Express2 Atom Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System this morning. This stock is so far down from prior highs that any good news is welcome.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) managed to gain 4% to $25.60 right before the close despite its earnings warning hitting the stock early today. This was already factored in and should have been anticipated. It is keeping its AAA debt rating, keeping its dividend, and suspending buybacks to preserve liquidity.

Northwest Airlines Corporation (NYSE: NWA) and soon to be parent Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) approved their merger today with something around 98% to 99% of the votes combined in favor of the deal. Unfortunately it had no bearing on the stocks, as Northwest shares were actually down 1% at the close.

Today would have likely felt like Day 3 of the market siege, but thankfully the master of the universe came to a key firm's rescue. The bad news is that the stock markets were mixed all day and the key index levels didn't gain at the end of the day. The good news is that there was no systematic free fall. Bernanke changed his tone marginally to convey a better bailout message, and Paulson was more on target today in conveying the need and lack of outright costs to the system. Things are so bad that the Presidential campaigns are being put on hold temporarily.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,825.17 -29 -0.275%
NASDAQ 2,155.68 +2.35 +0.11%
S&P500 1,185.89 -2.23 -0.19%
10YR T-Note 3.771% (-0.07%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
52-Week Low Club

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was the real stabilizer today despite what the overall index levels closed at. It raised $5 billion in a stock sale and received a $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett. Shares were up almost 6% at $132.20 right before the close.

Today was nothing short of "Bailout Failure: Day 2 of the Siege" after Bernanke and Paulson both talked down the markets in the speech over the need for the bailout package on Capitol Hill. It is becoming the fear or the concern that many failures are just going to have to shake out of the system. The good news is that oil fell too after a record day into yesterday's futures expiration for the October contract. Bond yields also rose on fears that the Treasury is just going to print money for whatever bailout package it puts together.

Below are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,851.30 -164.39 (-1.49%)
NASDAQ 2,155.34 -23.64 (-1.08%)
S&P500 1,189.96 -17.13 (-1.42%)
10YR T-Note 3.841% (+0.015%)
52-Week Lows
Analyst Upgrades
Analyst Downgrades

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) lowered its guidance for the quarter. The company now sees its earnings in a range of $1.24 to $1.26 EPS, while First Call has the consensus estimate of $1.40 and its previous guidance was $1.37 to $1.42. It gave its one-time reasons, but this sounds more symptomatic than anything.

Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) announced that CEO Philip Schoonover was forced to resign amid nearly two-year's worth of troubles and management missteps that drove this company into the ground. Shares were indicated up over 5% early today, but traders sold the news as they just expect the numbers to get worse. Shares were down over 5% at $1.61 immediately before the close.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was down over 4% at $19.20 in today's final miunutes. Part may be on bailout concerns, but Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer cut key bank estimates again along with other money center banks.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was down almost 4.5% at $25 in the final minutes today although not on news out of the company itself. It seems that Merrill Lynch has finally figured out there is more turmoil in the consumer and financial sector. The brokerage firm downgraded its Buy rating to a lower Neutral rating.

ImClone Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: IMCL) was one of the few real winners with shares up over 6% at $63.11 in today's final minutes. This is after the acquisition offer has now been raised to a formal tender of $62 per share.

Better than expected earnings are driving 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS) stock today. The lagging networking and router company posted earnings last night of 11 cents non-GAAP EPS on revenue of $342.6 million. First Call estimates were 6 cents EPS on $337.12 million in revenue. The results were above the already raised targets.

3Coms's prior raised guidance from August had been for revenues to come in a range of $335 million to $340 million ($10 million higher than before) with earnings per share of $0.06 to $0.08. 3Com generated $39.3 million in cash from operations. The company's cash and cash equivalents as of August 29 were $541.4 million.

Even more interesting is that on a GAAP basis when benefits of a legal patent settlement are included, 3Com would have actually earned 20 cents EPS. The other translated results were a 7% rise in revenues because of strong sales in Asia lasting longer than 3Com had expected. It also removed 33% from operating expenses.

It is far too soon to say that a turnaround is underway here. But these results are better than even most skeptics would have assumed. The company's small size now with a market capitalization of under $1 billion means that these results will also not translate to strength in the larger competitors.

Shares are up over 5% at $2.21 this morning on active trading volume, but with so few analysts following it and with the stock being relegated to a "cult stock" or a "has been" stock, the verdict is still a long ways off on this one.

Covering the market close has led to two outcomes: being a financial stock specialist or being a Bedlam patient off the anti-psychotics. Monday was nothing short of another disappointment. Today's markets were headed south after the $700 billion bailout plan received more add-ons (and criticism), but the tone of massively higher costs combined with a sudden $20.00 a barrel gain in oil led the markets further and further south. Interestingly enough, alternative energy stocks failed to follow oil higher at all. As the bailout received criticism, financial stocks tanked.

These are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11,016.09 -372.35 -3.27%
NASDAQ 2,179.94 -93.96 -4.13%
S&P500 1,207.75 -47.33 -3.77%
10YR T-Bond 3.824% (+0.055%)
52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was a loser today after Morgan Stanley cut its estimates for the high-flying tech stock. Shares were down almost 6% at $132.66 in today's final minutes.

Today and yesterday will go down in the history books as THE BAILOUT DAYS. The market was up sharply on record volume and short squeezes almost everywhere after the government bailout plans and the ban on short selling financial stocks. As the advance-decline line was massive with 85% NYSE stocks and 71% of NASDAQ stocks up on last look today, we wanted to mostly cover some of the ones which failed to chase the market. Here are today's unofficial closing bell averages:
DJIA 11,385.51 +365.82; +3.32%
NASDAQ 2,264.83 +65.73; +2.99%
S&P500 1,250.90 +44.39; +3.68%
10YR T-Bond 3.769% +0.332%
52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

The biggest winner of the troubled financial stocks in today's final minutes was American International Group (NYSE: AIG). There was no news from the company, it was all the bailout and barring of short sales in the stock. Its shares were up more than 57% at $4.24 in today's final minutes before the close.

As we wanted to focus on the stocks that lagged today, here is that list of key stocks....

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was down 4% at $20.02 in the final minutes before the close but shares had been down as low as $19.27 today. Its loss of search market share again hurt the stock and day traders pounded it early on.

The markets could have changed their name to 'Yo-Yo' today rather than 'Skydiver.' It wasn't the VIX reaching multi-year highs of 40 that ran us up. It wasn't last night's intervention. It was the first overseas curbing of short selling financial stocks in the U.K. and then the word that the government was preparing a new version of the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Dow 11,010.74 +401.08 +3.78%
Nasdaq 2,199.10 +100.25 +4.78%
S&P 500 1,202.86 +46.47 +4.02%
10 Yr Bond(%) 3.432% +0.022%

52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) was a huge winner today. Shares were up over 50% at $3.17 right before the close after it has formally put itself up for sale. The rest of the rally came from government hopes of a new RTC.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) also saw a monster run. Shares rose 20% to $2.45 on more than 200 million shares. Tie that one to a possible RTC as well.

Carnage. Mayhem. BS. Rumors. It was and remains ugly and the fears are only growing. You should see the credit spreads of the credit default swaps. Some of them have never traded at these levels -- even on the good solid companies. Trying to get new, fresh angles to cover the markets right now is becoming a challenge. It's just ugly. I didn't even feel like writing a Closing Bell post today. Gold, oil and metals rallied sharply as investors fled to save havens.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,610.80 -448.22 -4.05%
S&P 500 1,156.21 -57.38 -4.73%
NASDAQ 2,098.85 -109.05 -4.94%
10YR T-Bond 3.41% -0.081%
52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT) needs to change its name to "NO TELL" in a hurry. This stock was down 50% at $2.64 right before the close. You know why: slowing telecom and communication equipment orders. Yep, another warning.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was the worst financial cohort today. The stock was crushed on rumors, widening credit spreads specific to it, and just overall fears that it is next on the Bataan Death March. Right before the close the stock was down 30% to $20.00, but shares hit lows of $16.08 at the worst level today.