After the US House of Representatives failed to pass the government's proposed $700 billion financial market bailout package Monday, the US stock market took a significant plunge in afternoon trading, with steel stocks being especially hard-hit.
Once it became apparent Monday that the House would reject the Bush administration-backed bill, which would have allowed the government to purchase mortgage-backed assets from financial institutions, Wall Street reacted strongly, resulting in one of the worst one-day crashes ever.
Although stocks plummeted across the board, steel stocks were among the worst hit, with the Amex Steel Index falling 17.1 percent Monday. Some examples of steel stocks which took a big hit Monday include AK Steel Holding Corp., which lost 18 percent, and ArcelorMittal, which fell 15 percent to a 19-month low. Latin American stocks also fell significantly, with Brazilian iron ore giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA (Vale) taking a considerable hit -- Vale closed 12.1 percent lower on Monday trading.
Illustrating the magnitude of Monday's stock plunge, the Dow Jones Industrial average saw its largest one-day decrease ever, dropping over 700 points and surpassing the previous record set on the first day of trading after the September 11 terror attacks. In percentage terms, though, the drop, at about 7 percent, was well under the more than 20 percent drops that occurred on Black Monday of October 1987 and at the start of the Great Depression.