The pomp and circumstance of the inaugural celebrations in the capital failed to lift the gloom on Wall Street this afternoon, as concern about the worsening global recession overcame any joy for Obama. The Dow had its worst Inauguration Day drop in history, plunging 332.13 points to close at 7,949.09, and the S&P 500 was down 5.3 percent, to 805.22—it’s off to its worst ever start to a year. Big losers were State Street Corp., down 59 percent, and Wells Fargo and Bank of America, both slumping more than 23 percent. Predicting US financial losses from the current crisis will reach $3.6 trillion, New York University professor and financial Nostradamus Nouriel Roubini summed up the grim mood from Dubai: “The problems of Citi, Bank of America, and others suggest the system is bankrupt.”
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