Stocks Down on Obama’s Promise to Be a “Watchful Eye” on Free Markets

I guess it wasn’t a great day for everyone:

The dawn of the Obama presidency could not shake the stock market from its dejection over the rapidly deteriorating state of the banking industry. Financial stocks, many of them falling by double digit percentages, led a huge drop on Wall Street Tuesday that left the major indexes down more than 4 percent and the Dow Jones industrials down 332 points. Although traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange paused to watch the inauguration ceremony and Obama’s remarks, the transition of power didn’t erase investors’ intensifying concerns about struggling banks and their impact on the overall economy.

Maybe it was this part of his speech:

this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control–and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart–not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Translation: Rich people might have to give some of their money to poor people. Sorry.

Tags: banking industry, dawn, dejection, dow jones, dow jones industrials, financial stocks, free markets, gross domestic product, inauguration ceremony, indexes, new york stock, new york stock exchange, percentages, presidency, prosperity, stock market, wall street, watchful eye, willing heart, york stock exchange