Markets stagnant on new bailout

The Fed's plan to launch yet another multi-billion dollar rescue plan did little to buoy stock markets, according to the Financial Times. Markets in the United States and Europe failed to continue Monday's big gains.

The S&P 500 rose over 8 percent Monday and early Tuesday, but slipped 0.2 percent in the afternoon, the Times reports. The FTSE 100 index in London saw it's biggest one-day gain ever on Monday, ended 0.4 percent higher on Tuesday, and the Eurofirst 300 index rose 0.6 percent.

The Fed plans to buy $500 billion of mortgage backed securities and $100 billion of debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the paper writes, while the Treasury will give $20 billion to the Fed's $200 billion lending facility for the consumer asset-backed securities market.