Markets Cling to Stable Condition

Major US indexes reeled today, after a wild seesaw session in which a Fed bailout rescued Wall Street from a veritginous selloff this morning. The Dow closed at 13239.54, down 31.14, after initial rumors of a broad but blurry liquidity crisis crashed it over 100 points in early trading. The Nasdaq fell 11.60 to close at 2544.89; the S&P was off 2.40 at 1455.50.

The Fed dumped another $38B in three injections into the credit sector to make sure traders could cash out; the move, along with gossip about an emergency interest-rate cut, actually moved indexes into positive territory for a brief period of the afternoon. But a Cassandra-like report from Countrywide on the teetering mortgage market, combined with volatile numbers from Asia and Europe, were enough to keep losers dominant over winners almost 2 to 1. (More NASDAQ stories.)