Wall Street: This Stimulus Is Pretty Lousy

"Wall Street was looking for a TARP 2.0, which they're not going to get," said Smith. "The stimulus isn't a one-shot injection like the TARP. It's actually staggered over years, which doesn't help the liquidity crisis on Wall Street in the short term."

Paul Nolte, director of investments with Hinsdale Associates, agrees that many parts of the package are long-dated from the market's perspective. "Any road construction, as you know, will take a while to get started," he said. "Workers say they're shovel-ready, but it'll be a while before any of that trickles into anyone's back pocket."

Nolte is also quick to point out the muted response to the economic stimulus plan passed one year ago by President Bush. That plan cost only $150 billion, roughly one-fifth of the proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which involved sending rebate checks to American taxpayers.

"We've had a couple of stimulus packages now, and even the most recent one wasn't very simulative," he said. "If you blinked you missed it. Plus, people paid off their credit card bills, which didn't do anything to help the economy."

Instead, the market would react more favorably to a stimulus plan that directly addressed the burdened bank balance sheets. One solution is the "bad bank" plan that would hold financial firms' debt securities, thereby boosting their capital levels and restoring confidence in the sector.

On Tuesday, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said he was open to using funds from the original TARP to establish a bad bank. However, market analysts suggest that Wall Street would be more satisfied with a different approach.