Wall Street Ends Worst Week Ever

(CBS/ AP)  Wall Street capped its worst week ever with a wild session Friday that saw the Dow Jones industrials rocket within a 1,000 point range before closing with a relatively mild loss and the Nasdaq composite index actually end with a modest advance. Investors were still agonizing over frozen credit markets, but seven days of massive losses made many stocks tempting for traders looking for bargains.

The Dow lost 128 points, giving the blue chips an eight-day loss of just under 2,400. The average had its worst week on record in both point and percentage terms, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index, the indicator most watched by market professionals.

The hair-trigger mentality of the market - a reflection of the intense anxiety on the Street - was evident from the opening bell. The Dow fell 696 points in the first 15 minutes, recovered to an advance of more than 100 before the first hour was over, then turned sharply lower again before moving in swings of hundreds of points at the day's end.

Investors have spent much of the past month shuddering over a credit market that remains frozen, posing a threat to the economy. But Friday's gainers included financial stocks, the ones most decimated amid the ongoing banking and credit crisis.

The major indexes' sharp swings throughout the day were likely exacerbated by the computer-driven "buy" and "sell" orders that kicked in when prices fell far enough to make some stocks look like attractive bets or make other investors want to exit the market. The spurts of buying didn't reflect an easing of the market's despair, and trading is likely to remain volatile when the market reopens on Monday.

"Fear has been running rampant all over the Street. Fear and greed, that's what rules the Street. I think the carcass has been stripped to the bone," said Dave Henderson, a floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange for Raven Securities Corp.

As nervous investors have been pulling billions out of the market, one business has been profiting: sales of home safes are up 75 percent according to America's biggest safe maker, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 128.00, or 1.49 percent, to 8,451.49. At its low point Friday, the Dow was down 696 at 7,882.51, just 60 points above its low in Wall Street's last bear market, 7,286.27, reached Oct. 9, 2002. It crossed the line between gains and losses 32 times during the session.

The Dow rebounded from a low of 7,882.51 for the day - the worst trading level since March 17, 2003. Still, its closing level Friday was the lowest since April 25, 2003.

The Dow has lost 1,874.19 points, or 18.2 percent, over the past week. Its dismal performance outdid the week that ended July 22, 1933, which saw a 17 percent drop - and back then, during the Great Depression, there were six trading days in a week.

Some traders are hoping the steep sell-off late Thursday and early Friday - 1,000 points in just two hours - finally signaled a bottom, reports Mason.

Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.70 or 1.18 percent, to 899.22, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.39, or 0.27 percent, to 1,649.51.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 23.28, or 4.66 percent, to 522.48, perhaps a welcome sign for investors as small-cap stocks are often first on investors' shopping lists when they think a market turnaround is at hand.

President Bush said Friday the government's efforts to rescue the financial sector was powerful enough to succeed but that it would take some time to be fully implemented.

Late Friday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the administration will move ahead with a plan to buy stock in financial institutions. Paulson said the program to purchase stock in financial institutions will be open to a broad array of institutions.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations gathered Friday in Washington to discuss the economic meltdown.

Officials from the G-7 issued a five-point plan aimed at unfreezing a credit crisis that has unhinged Wall Street and markets around the globe. The group pledged to take "decisive action and use all available tools" to battle the crisis, to protect major financial institutions in their countries and to keep them from failing.

Most major central banks around the world slashed interest rates this week after continuing problems in the credit market triggered concerns that banks will run out of money. Analysts have described the mood on trading floors this week as panicked at times, with investors bailing out of investments on fears there is no end in sight to the financial carnage.

A stream of selling forced exchanges in Austria, Russia and Indonesia to suspend trading, and those that remained opened were hammered. The rout in Australian markets caused traders there to call it "Black Friday."

European stocks sank Friday, with Britain's FTSE-100 falling 8.85 percent, German's DAX declining 7.01 percent, and France's CAC-40 ending down 7.73 percent.

London stocks have lost more than a fifth of their value just this week, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

In Asia, the collapse of Japan's Yamato Life Insurance caused already nervous investors to pull even more money out of the market - the Nikkei 225 fell 9.6 percent.

CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports that Asia depends on exports, which are hurting - Toyota stock is down 40 percent as U.S. sales tumble.

[jon_mccain]

John McCain is no friend to the American worker.

[jon_mccain]

From McCain''''s web page

# Low-skilled non-agricultural workers:

* Implement a usable, market based system for low-skilled workers to enter the United States in an orderly fashion.

* Ensure that the cap rises and falls with market demand to meet the changing needs of the economy.

* Provide for adequate worker protection to guard against employer abuses of temporary workers.

* Protect American workers by designing a program that allows willing and eligible United States workers adequate opportunity to apply for available positions.

* Ensure that workers return to their home countries after their temporary period in the United States.

* Allow for appropriate visa renewals to assure that both the employer and employee have stability in the workforce.

* Offer a limited number of green cards to reflect the small number of workers that may wish to remain in the United States permanently.

[jon_mccain]

From McCain''s web page

* Highly Skilled workers:

o Ensure high skilled workers trained and educated in the United States have the opportunity to stay and work in the United States upon graduation.

o Reform caps for H-1B visa program to rise and fall in response to market conditions. Reduce bureaucracy and waiting times for workers to arrive in the United States.

o Increase available green card numbers to reflect employer and employee demand.

o Extend the ability for H-1B visa holders to renew their H-1B status while waiting for their green card number to become available.

o Ensure available and qualified American workers are given adequate and fair opportunities to apply for available positions.

[jon_mccain]

Voted to allow firms to lay off Americans
to make room for foreign workers in 1998
Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill(S.1723), Sen. McCain had an opportunity to vote for a Kennedy amendment that would have prohibited U.S. firms from using temporary foreign workers to replace Americans. Sen. McCain opposed that protection. The Amendment failed 38-60.

[jon_mccain]

Voted to allow firms to lay off Americans
to make room for foreign workers in 1998
Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill (S.1723), Sen. McCain had an opportunity to vote for a measure requiring U.S. firms to check a box on a form attesting that they had first sought an American worker for the job. Sen. McCain voted against that, joining those who said the requirement would give government too much authority over corporations%u2019 right to hire whomever they please from whatever country.

[jon_mccain]

Nearly doubled H-1B foreign high-tech workers in 1998
Sen. McCain helped the Senate pass S.1723 in a 78-20 vote. Enacted into law, it increased by nearly 150,000 the number of foreign workers high-tech American companies could hire over the next three years. Although the foreign workers receive temporary visas for up to six years, most historically have found ways to stay permanently in this country. Sen. McCain voted for more foreign workers even though U.S. high tech workers over the age of 50 were suffering 17% unemployment and U.S. firms were laying off thousands of workers at the time.

[jon_mccain]

Voted for a foreign worker bill with no anti-fraud measures in 2000.
Sen.McCain voted for S.2045, the Abraham foreign worker bill to nearly triple the number of foreign high-tech workers. On the heels of the release of a GAO report finding no proof of a high-tech worker shortage and evidence of abuse in the H-1B program, Sen. McCain voted for this foreign worker bill that contained no worker protections or anti-fraud measures. The bill passed the Senate 96-1.

[jon_mccain]

Cosponsored legislation to import more low-skill foreign workers in 2004
Sen. McCain cosponsored S. 2252, the Save Summer Act of 2004. Introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), S. 2252 would have raised the annual cap on H-2B visas for 2004 by 40,000, for a total of 106,000 H-2B visas. This would have allowed thousands of low skill foreign workers to enter the U.S. and compete with American workers.

[jon_mccain]

Voted against amendment to strip foreign-worker increase in 2005
Sen. McCain voted against the Byrd Amendment to S. 1932, the Budget Reconciliation bill. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), would have stripped ALL immigration increases from the Budget Reconciliation bill and replaced the increase with a provision to impose a $1,500 fee on employers who hire certain non-immigrants. The immigration increase was added to the Budget Reconciliation bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a result of an 14-2 vote in favor of an amendment introduced by Senator Arlen Specter. The Specter plan would increase permanent, employment-based immigration by nearly tripling the number of foreign workers who can enter the U.S. each year. As well, it exempts workers%u2019 families from the 140,000-visa cap on employment-based immigration. It also raises the cap on employment-based permanent immigration by adding each year the lesser of 90,000 visas or any %u201Cunused%u201D employment-based visas from any prior year. Altogether, these provisions could generate a net increase in permanent immigration of 366,000 aliens, or about one-third of current, annual legal immigration. Senator Byrd%u2019s amendment was cosponsored by Sens. Sessions (R-AL) and Durbin (D-IL). It was also supported by the AFL-CIO. The Byrd Amendment failed by a vote of 14 to 85.

[jon_mccain]

Voted against amendment to cap employment-based visas in 2006
Sen. McCain voted against the Bingaman Amendment (SA 4131) to to S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. The Bingaman Amendment would cap the number of employment-based visas for workers, spouses and children at 650,000. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimates that the Bingaman Amendment would reduce employment-based visas available under S. 2611 by about 150,000 a year. The Bingaman Amendment passed by a vote of 51 to 47.