Wall Street Impatient About Fed's Fix

NEW YORK -
Wall Street and stock market investors in general aren't feeling much love for Ben Bernanke these days.
Stocks plunged on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve chairman and his fellow Fed policymakers cut interest rates by a quarter point, disappointing those hoping for a half-point reduction.
A surprise announcement a day later by the Fed and four other central banks of a plan to increase the supply of dollars in both Europe and the U.S. has drawn catcalls from some who say it won't do much to diffuse the global credit crisis.
By week's end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 3.1 percent from where it was just before Tuesday's Fed rate decision was released. Such a downdraft underscores the growing anxiety over credit woes, and how it might spill into everything from dealmaking to corporate earnings in 2008.
"Investors are skittish," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "If you look at the magnitude of the headwinds hitting the market and the brand of medicine we're getting from the Fed, it is hard to say we've got the right dosage."
Market participants like Hogan say one of the key "tells" for investors about how Wall Street is navigating the market dislocation is the performance of financial stocks, a sector many believe must get healthy before the market can rally.