NEW YORK -- The stock market is plunging precipitously, with the Dow Jones industrials down as much as 700 points, as traders feared the financial bailout package would not pass the House.

AP Photo / Richard Drew

Trader Daniel Lomeli, left, watches the numbers as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday Sept. 29, 2008. Markets remain strained ahead of a planned House vote on an unpopular $700 billion plan to rescue troubled financial companies and as investors look over a deal for Wachovia Corp.'s banking operations.

As the vote was shown on TV, stocks plunged and and investors fled to the safety of the credit markets on fears that the financial system would keep sinking under the weight of failed mortgage debt.

The Dow fell 705 points, then regained some ground to trade down 462 at 10,681.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)