US Stocks Decline After Bailout Passage

布什签署救市法案后美国股市仍跌

　

Volatile trading on U.S. financial markets ended in losses on Wall Street, after President George Bush signed a massive rescue plan for U.S. economy.

　

美国总统布什签署用巨资拯救美国经济的法案之后，美国金融市场依然动荡不已。华尔街星期五的交易以低势收盘。

U.S. stock markets surged early Friday, in anticipation that the House of Representatives would pass a revised financial bailout plan. But after the bill passed and President Bush signed it, prices dropped. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Friday down 157 points, or 1.5 percent. The NASDAQ also lost 1.5 percent, and the S&P 500 slid 1.4 percent.

　

美国股票市场星期五早上大涨，因为投资人都在预期美国国会众议院将通过经过修改后的救市计划。但是，众议院通过这项议案，并且布什总统签署这项议案使之成为法律后，股市反而跌落。道琼斯工业平均指数星期五下跌了157点，跌幅为百分之一点五。纳斯达克综合指数同样下跌了百分之一点五，标准普尔500指数下跌了百分之一点四。

European stock markets finished higher on Friday, but markets in Asia were down.

　

星期五，欧洲股市收盘时走高，但亚洲股市下滑。

London's Financial Times index was up two-and-a-quarter percent, the CAC 40 in Paris gained three percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt advanced 2.4 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei index lost two percent, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng fell nearly three percent. The dollar was lower against the Japanese yen but gained against the euro.

　

伦敦金融时报指数上涨了百分之二点二五，巴黎CAC-40指数上扬百分之三，法兰克福股市DAX指数上涨了百分之二点五。但是，东京日经指数下跌了百分之二，香港恒生指数也下挫百分之三。美元对日圆比价下跌，但是对欧元比价上升。

Asia's central banks have invested billions of dollars in credit markets since the U.S. financial crisis started to spread in September.

　

美国金融危机9月份扩散以来，亚洲各国中央银行已经在信贷市场投资数十亿美元。

The secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Supachai Panitchpakdi, said Friday the rescue plan is only a first step towards major reform of the U.S. financial system.

　

联合国贸易和发展会议秘书长素帕猜星期五表示，美国政府的救市计划只不过是美国金融市场重大改革的第一步。

"This is just to prevent the crisis from deepening - it doesn't mean that we've already succeeded in tackling the basic issues," he said. "So there needs to be a rethinking of the way that financial institutions have been managed and have been regulated in the United States and I think throughout the world."

　

他说：“这只不过是为了防止危机进一步深化。它并不意味著我们已经成功地解决了基本问题。因为，我们应当重新思考一下管理和监控美国金融机构，乃至全世界金融机构的方式。”

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 263-to-171 to approve more than $700 billion in government spending to help stabilize the financial markets. Some lawmakers, like Democrat Barbara Lee of California, had voted against the bailout on Monday, but agreed to pass the enhanced legislation on Friday.

　

美国众议院是以263票对171票通过政府支出七千多亿美元帮助稳定金融市场的议案的。一些国会议员星期一曾投下反对票，但是星期五却对修改后的议案投了赞成票。来自加利福尼亚州的民主党人巴巴拉·李就是其中的一个。

"We will not magically turn the economy around, reverse the rise in unemployment, or end this recession which we are in now," she said. "We must be honest about that. But I must err on the side of caution, so our seniors can have some confidence that their pensions are safe. And I hope that we will be able to help prevent this financial crisis from exacting an even bigger toll on the everyday lives of our constituents."

　

她说：“我们不可能神奇地把经济形势扭转过来，转变失业率上升的趋势，或者结束我们目前正在经历的经济衰退。我们对此必须诚实。但是，即使我犯错误的话，那也是出于谨慎的考虑。因为我们的长辈们需要对他们的退休金感到安全，感到有信心。我希望我们能够帮助防止这场金融危机对我们选民的日常生活带来更大的冲击。”

Others, like Republican Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, remained unconvinced.

　

其他在星期一投反对票的议员，却没有被说服。科罗拉多州共和党众议院马莉琳·马斯格拉夫说：

"Taxpayers for generations will pay for our haste, and there is no guarantee that they will ever see the benefits," she said. "We should not reward bad behavior. Wall Street will not have to learn its lesson, and we are not doing anything to keep them from running our economy into the ground again."

　

“我们现在草率行事，可是好几代的纳税人将对此付出代价。而且，他们是否能够从中获益也没有任何保障。我们不应当奖励坏的行为。华尔街必须接受教训，我们并没有采取任何措施防止他们再次毁坏我们的经济。”

Almost all members of the House will be up for re-election in about a month, and mail, e-mail and telephone calls to their offices showed overwhelming opposition to the bailout.

　

几乎所有国会众议员一个月以后都会面临选举。他们办公室收到的信件、电子邮件和电话显示，绝大部分选民反对救市计划。

President Bush signed the bill shortly after the vote. He thanked lawmakers from both parties for their support, and said the bill's passage sends a strong signal to markets around the world.

　

众议院投票后不久，布什总统就签署了这项议案。他对两党议员的支持表示感谢。他说，议案的通过向全世界的金融市场发出了强有力的信息。

"We have shown the world that the United States of America will stabilize our financial markets and maintain a leading role in the global economy," he said.

　

“我们已经向全世界显示，美利坚合众国将稳定国内金融市场，继续保持我们在全球经济中的领导角色。”

One factor in Friday's losses on Wall Street was news from the U.S. Labor Department that the country lost 159,000 jobs in September. It was the biggest job loss in more than five years. The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent, largely because hundreds of thousands of people were leaving the workforce. The reduction in payrolls was much sharper than economists were predicting, and this was the ninth straight month that the country has lost jobs.

　

华尔街星期五走低的一个原因是，来自美国劳工部的消息说，今年9月份，又有十五万九千人失去工作。这是五年来失业人数最多的一个月。由于成千上万的美国人退休，因此美国的失业率依然保持在百分之六点一。工资总额的减少比经济学家们预测的还要多，而且这是美国连续九个月就业机会减少。

Stuart Hoffman, an economist with PNC Financial, says the job losses are a bad sign for the U.S. economy.

"This is a sign that the American worker is hurting," he said. "They are losing jobs, and the economy's recession, which we believe it has been in for a while, is getting worse, not better."

Meanwhile, two big U.S. banks are battling to take over the troubled bank Wachovia. Wells Fargo signed a $15 billion agreement Friday to buy the institution without government assistance. However, under a deal announced Monday, Citigroup would acquire Wachovia with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insisted Friday that the earlier agreement go forward.

　

与此同时，美国两家大银行正在为收购陷入困境的瓦霍维亚银行而争斗。富国银行星期五签署了一项在不需要政府援助的情况下以150亿美元购买瓦霍维亚银行的协议。然而，根据星期一宣布的一项协议，花旗银行将在联邦储蓄保险公司的帮助下兼并瓦霍维亚银行。花旗银行坚持说，早先的协议是有效的。

Nancy Atkinson, senior analyst with the Itay Group, says Wells Fargo made Wachovia a better deal.

"Wells Fargo's financial standing is more secure than Citigroup's right now, and they are acquiring all of Wachovia, whereas Citi was excluding AG Edwards and Evergreen," she said.

The Federal Reserve says it has not yet had time to review the proposed sale to Wells Fargo.