Early in the day, the TSX saw a 100-point rally buoyed by bargain-hunters trolling the resource markets. But after U.S. President George Bush called for an economic stimulus package that would amount to about 1% of U.S. GDP, stocks plunged.

The afternoon saw another minor rallying attempt, and the S&P/TSX composite closed down 58.51 points, or 0.46%, at 12,737.12.

The Canadian dollar finished the day off at US$97.33, up 0.22 of a cent.

Seven of the ten of the TSX sub-groups lost ground.

The financials group lost 0.96%.

DundeeWealth stock lost $1.60, or 10.51%, to close at$13.62, after the firm announced that controlling shareholder Ned Goodman isn’t interested in selling the mutual fund and wealth management company, which had received unsolicited takeover offers last fall.

Manulife Financial lost 28¢, or 0.76%, and closed at $36.54, on a day of heavy trading volume of 4,432,122

The energy sub-group fell 0.22%.

Crude oil for February delivery finished up 44¢, at US$90.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude did hit a mid-day high of US$91.32 a barrel, fueled in part by hopes that the Fed might deliver an inter-meeting interest rate cut.

In individual stocks, BCE shares continued on a downward path, as investors fear that U.S. credit market problems may get in the way of the $51.7-billion sale of the Montreal-based telecom giant to a private equity consortium.

On its fifth day of declines, BCE stock fell 16¢, or 0.44%, closing at $36.37.

Kinross Gold Corp. stock lost 49¢, or 2.29%, closing at $20.95, after UBS lowered its 2008 and 2009 earnings forecasts for the mining company. The UBS forecast came despite the company’s own forecast of a 20% rise in gold production in 2008 and plans to spend US$600 million to grow several projects.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed down 38.53 points, or 1.45%, at 2,619.21.

Bush’s announcement drove down the U.S. equity market, which had rallied early in the day, but stocks ultimately sunk for a fourth day in a row.

In New York, the Dow fell 59.91 points, or 0.49%, to close at 12,099.30. The S&P 500 lost 8.06 points, or 0.60%, to finish the day at 1,325.19.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite shed 6.88 points, or 0.29%, and ended the session at 2,340.02.