The Dow Jones closed below 10,000 points Monday for the first time since Oct. 16, 2004. This downward trend comes on the heels of Congress's passage of the Emergency Economic Stability Act of 2008, or bailout bill, last Friday.

The Dow Jones officially closed at 9955.50, a drop of 369.88 points from the previous day. At one point the Dow was trading as low as 9525.32 points, and it did not rally back to its closing position until the final hour of trading.

Before Congress passed the act and the president signed it into law, there had been a lending freeze between banks and businesses, which was making it very difficult for companies to perform day-to-day activities such as cover payrolls and purchase inventory. The bailout bill was intended to encourage those lending practices, and as a result stimulate the stock market, but it has yet to do so.

The market is doing what markets do.
Scott Ewing, investment manager at Edward Jones

Kenneth Baker, an economics lecturer at the University of Tennessee, said part of the reason for this is that it's still too early to see the true effects of the act because no official actions have been taken.

Recent polls indicate Americans either feel the economy is currently in a recession or that a recession is likely to come.

Baker admits a recession is more likely now than it was six months ago, but others disagree.

Scott Ewing, an investment manager of Edward Jones, said, "The market is doing what markets do."

He said it is normal to have three "up" years followed by one "down" year.

It is not just the United States that is feeling the effects of the mortgage crisis. American banks were not the only ones backing bad mortgages with securities, and the effects of such practices can be seen in the international markets. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed Monday down 4.97 percent at 16,803.76; Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 3.03 percent at 10,155.9; and Germany's DAX closed down 1.12 percent at 5,326.63.

Because demand for oil is projected to decrease in the future, prices are around $90 per barrel. This is having a positive effect on gas prices here, but a negative effect on Russia's RTX, which fell about 20 percent Monday.