US stocks tumble 780 points

Wall Street’s worst fears came to pass today, when the government’s financial bail-out plan failed in Congress and stocks plunged precipitously – hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 780 points in their largest one-day point drop ever.

Credit markets, whose turmoil helped feed the stock market’s angst, froze up further amid the growing belief that the country was heading into a spreading credit and economic crisis.