Fed tries to ease market woes

The stock markets were down in early trading today after yesterday’s 387-point slide, but not by as much as expected. The Federal Reserve said it would do all it can to “facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.” Analysts say the Fed will do everything short of cutting interest rates to stabilize the markets, which have been volatile in the past several weeks because of anxiety about tighter credit conditions and fallout in the subprime mortgage market. more [AP via Sun]