Overall, the markets were fairly flat today. Wall St. remained focused on the future of several large financial companies as word came from Washington that the Fed and Treasury were likely to let Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) fail, if it comes to that. Rumors of potential buyers for Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) wiped the stock up and down. By the end of the day it was only down 2% American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) paid for taking too long to announce how it would handle the mess on its balance sheet. The punishment for tardiness was a 25% fall-off in the shares.

Other significant news moving stocks and bond around started with oil trading below $100 for the first time since April. This was despite word that Hurricane Ike would almost certainly take some refining capacity off-line. OPEC had its chance to tighten production but the Saudis stabbed the other members in the back by breaking ranks and saying it would let a river of crude flow as needed.

Car company stocks stayed fired up on the prospects of lower gas and loan guarantees from Congress. Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors Corporation (NYSE:GM) were both up over 3%. Their futures now appear to depend more on whether they are better at borrowing money than at selling cars.

DJIA: 11,431.03 -.02%

S&P 500: 1,252.27 +.26%

Nasdaq: 2,261.27 +.14%

10 Year Bond: 3.7300% +.1080

52-Week Lows

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

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