Stock Gains Evaporate

The relief rally over the government rescue of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) lasted all of a day, as investors turned their attention Tuesday to figuring out which financial firms might be next to fail.

Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) and AIG (NYSE: AIG) led the way lower with steep declines, as the S&P and Nasdaq gave up all of Monday’s gains and then some.

But Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) had good news for investors after the close, surging 6% after the company reaffirmed its guidance for the third quarter, and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) rose on news that it will be joining the S&P 500.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) led tech stocks lower during Tuesday’s trading session, falling 4% after the company’s latest product launches were pretty much as expected.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) rose and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) fell on reports that the Justice Department could challenge the advertising deal between the two.

VMware (NYSE: VMW) fell 7% on another top departure, while SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) lost that much on a Lazard Capital downgrade.

TW Telecom (NASDAQ: TWTC) plunged 17% on a warning.

Innovative Solutions (NASDAQ: ISSC) jumped 13% on a special dividend, while C&D (NYSE: CHP) tumbled 24% on its results.

The Nasdaq plunged 60 to 2209, the S&P lost 43 to 1224, and the Dow tumbled 280 to 11,230. Volume was unchanged at 7.32 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.62 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 30-4 margin on the NYSE, and 23-5 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 91% on the NYSE, and 93% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 46-357 on the NYSE, and 57-220 on the Nasdaq.