Bad day for the markets today, as investors fled for safety in hard assets like gold and oil which sent the stock market stumbling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 3.27%, dropping 372.75 points to settle at 11,015.69. The Nasdaq dropped 4.17% or 94.92 points to close at 2,178.98 as technology took a big hit today. The S&P 500 declined 47.99 points, or 3.82%, to settle at 1,207.09. The 10 year Treasury note rose 151 basis points to 3.8260%.

Crude Oil closed at $120 per barrel, up $16.37 or 15.66%, falling slightly from its intra-day high close to $130 per barrel. During the session today, crude oil posted its biggest single day gain in history, jumping up over $25. Gold rose to $902.00 an ounce, up $41.40 or 4.81%. We should keep a close eye on commodity prices as the Dollar is beginning to show weakness and investors are fleeing from equity markets. The Dollar finally showed weakness spawning from our current financial crisis and investor’ concerns about the government’s proposed $700 billion bailout plan. The Dollar fell to 0.6766 vs. the Euro and 105.53 vs. the Yen. The Dollar performed very well last week considering the financial crisis, and it appears that until investors’ concerns are eased the Dollar may continue to fall in value relative to other major currencies as investors continue to flee to safety in hard assets and commodities.

The Federal Reserve gave permission to Goldman Sachs (GS: 120.78, -9.02 (-6.95%)) and Morgan Stanley (MS: 27.09, -0.12 (-0.44%)) to become “bank holding companies”, changing their status from investment banks in order for them to stay in business. This will allow both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to create commercial banks that can take deposits, which will increase the cash resources of both firms. Also, this status change will allow both firms access to the Fed’s emergency loan program, which is available to all other commercial banks. Originally the Fed had a five day waiting period on this status change, but after discussions with the Justice Department the status change was implemented today.

Morgan Stanley signed a nonbinding letter of intent to sell up to 20% of the firm to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The terms of the deal were not disclosed and if the deal goes through Morgan Stanley’s purchase price would be based on Morgan Stanley’s book value after Japan’s largest bank completes a due diligence review. The partnership would allow both banks to expand their global footprint, help Morgan Stanley transition to a commercial bank, and provides Morgan Stanley with financial support to help Morgan Stanley’s capital base during this current financial crisis.

Microsoft (MSFT: 25.40, +0.24 (+0.95%)), Hewlett Packard (HPQ: 47.16, -1.10 (-2.28%)), and Nike (NKE: 63.15, -0.55 (-0.86%)) all announced plans to buyback shares of their own stock. Microsoft announced that it plans to buy back $40 billion of its own stock over the next five years. HP plans to buy back $8 billion of its own stock, and Nike announced plans to repurchase $5 billion.

That’s all for today, catch me tomorrow, same time, same place, for the Bullish Bankers’ Daily Market Recap