Not wooden arrows, but something shot through Wall St.

The Dow posted a record one-day jump after European governments talked about their own bail-outs.

But we’re not out of the woods yet.

We’re only just getting the first inkling of what the Fed’s going to do to shore up the economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/economy/14treasury.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

U.S. Investing $250 Billion in Banks

By MARK LANDLER

Published: October 13, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department, in its boldest move yet, is expected to announce a plan on Tuesday to invest up to $250 billion in banks, according to officials. The United States is also expected to guarantee new debt issued by banks for three years — a measure meant to encourage the banks to resume lending to one another and to customers, officials said.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, talking with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. after a dinner at the White House Monday.

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

John A. Thain, chairman of Merrill Lynch, leaving the Treasury Department on Monday.

And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will offer an unlimited guarantee on bank deposits in accounts that do not bear interest — typically those of businesses — bringing the United States in line with several European countries, which have adopted such blanket guarantees.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 936 points, or 11 percent, the largest single-day gain in the American stock market since the 1930s. The surge stretched around the globe: in Paris and Frankfurt, stocks had their biggest one-day gains ever, responding to news of similar multibillion-dollar rescue packages by the French and German governments.

In London, they’re almost gleeful something has been done and seems to be working, at least for today.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4938229.ece

October 14, 2008

Markets soar as the world acts to rescue banks

Suzy Jagger in New York, Francis Elliott and Gráinne Gilmore

Stock markets soared yesterday after governments committed trillions of dollars in an unprecedented attempt to prevent the collapse of the international financial system.

World shares made their biggest one-day advance for 19 years as countries across four continents detailed the extraordinary lengths to which they will go to bail out stricken banks.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan and Qatar all took measures to guarantee deposits or improve bank liquidity.

In America Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, moved to implement British-style plans for the Administration to take a stake in ailing US banks. President Bush is expected to unveil firm plans today to use $250 billion of taxpayer funds to seize stakes in nine of America’s biggest banks as part of a move to stabilise the country’s banking system.

The co-ordinated international moves sparked the biggest single-day rally since the rebound after the Black Monday crash of October 1987. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 936 points, or 11 per cent, its biggest one-day point gain and the biggest percentage rise since 1933. In London, the FTSE 100 closed up more than 8 per cent, its second-biggest daily percentage rise.

Hope some of the $250 billion gets to the people who are struggling to keep their shops open and their employees paid.

Paul