Wall Street Feels Bailout Burnout

Updated from 3:04 p.m. EDT

After suffering through a day of gloom and volatility, U.S. stocks closed with modest losses Wednesday as traders await the outcome of a Senate vote on the Bush administration's rescue package for the financial system.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been down some 218 points earlier, ended the day off 19.59 points, or 0.2%, at 10,831.07, and the S&P 500 lost 5.3 points, or 0.5%, at 1161.06. The Nasdaq gave back 22.48 points, or 1.1%, to 2069.4.

Investors were still waiting for news on a $700 billion financial-sector bailout proposal rejected by the House of Representatives on Monday.

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The revised bill before the Senate includes a temporary increase in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s insurance on bank deposits to $250,000 from $100,000. The bill also extends existing tax breaks for individuals and businesses for two years.

The bill also will temporarily let the FDIC borrow unlimited funds from the Treasury to further bolster its insurance of U.S. deposits. Such a move could help alleviate strains on banks, as depositors have increasingly reduced deposit levels to the current $100,000 FDIC insurance limit.

Such a revision to the financial rescue package will provide additional pressure for lawmakers to pass the bill, wrote Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist at Miller Tabak, on his RealMoney.com blog. "This possibility will put pressure on members of the House and Senate to vote in favor of the bill not only because of the potential for impact on markets, but because of the possibility of backlash from constituents on the FDIC insurance issue," he wrote.