Some readers (all in the financial biz) offer some guesses:
Jonah,
The credit markets are still locked up and there is little trading of any corporate bonds. That bodes very ill for their ability to finance their operations in the future. There is still just too much uncertainty for money to be moving into risky assets at this time. Investors are really starting to believe we are headed for a very deep recession, and they want to be as safe as possible, bailout or no bailout.
Hope that helps
And:
Jonah,
We’ve been asking ourselves the same question on the desk all day. Most likely the markets have already priced in a deal getting done and this is, as the old adage goes, buy the rumor – sell the news.
And:
Jonah,
its nothing to do with whats in the bill, its more a combination of the following:
(a) people finanlly realise the bill isn’t going to solve everything
(b) Wachovia and a host of European banks have seen most of their shareholder equity disappear overnight. Bond holders and depositors will, by and large, be ok, but shareholders will be toast on most of the upcoming banking M&A activity.