Last Updated: February 17th, 2009: 5:03 PM ET---Despite the final approval of a $787 billion stimulus package from President Obama as well as another "stirring speech" about the challenges we face and the hope that lies ahead, the major US equity indices tumbled to close at session lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 3.8% lower with only one of its thirty components closing in the green, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) shares bucked the broader trend to close 3.7% higher following better-than-expected earnings and record sales. While General Motors (NYSE:GM) was the industrial's worst performer, off 12.8%, financials were the main culprit behind the Dow as well as broader market's decline. The financial sector closed 8.4% lower as investors continued to doubt the new Financial Stability Plan's potential. The energy sector and the materials sector followed closely behind, closing 6.3% lower and 6.1% lower as commodities sold off as investors' concerns flared regarding further contraction of the nation's economy with the front-month contract for light sweet crude closing off $2.58 to $34.93 per barrel on the NYMEX. The S&P 500 broke below 800 for the first time since January and closed at 789, its lowest since November of last year when it closed at 754. In addition to today, November 20th of 2008, is the only other time the S&P 500 has closed below 800 since October of 2002. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed off 4.2% to 1,471. President Obama approved the $787 billion legislation, which marks the largest public spending program since World War II, in Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The President was quoted as saying "I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems. Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs."

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