The weather matches the mood here on Wall Street. Stormy and sluicing down with rain.
Hopes were high of a deal to bail out the banks. But when talks in Washington hit a road block late on Thursday those hopes were dashed.
The collapse of Washington Mutual, America's largest banking failure, affords the markets a glimpse of things to come. If no agreement is reached to relieve financial companies of their bad assets more US banks will go out of business.
Staring over the abyss
There's some reassurance that Washington Mutual has been rescued by JP Morgan Chase.
If no deal is reached before the weekend then share prices could go into a sharp downward spiral.
But even that mighty bank has limited resources and cannot always be called upon by the Federal authorities as the buyer of last resort.
The pivotal moment for the US financial markets came in the middle of last week, when ordinary Americans withdrew massive amounts of dollars from money market mutual funds, which they use like savings accounts and are thought to be as good as cash.
That scared the authorities who found themselves staring over the abyss into a complete seizing up of the financial system.
More huge withdrawals from money market funds came yesterday, as the talks in Washington faltered. It's not a good omen.
