Stocks plunged early Friday as investors worried that a plan to ease a liquidity crisis at Bear Stearns Cos. indicates how severe credit troubles have become. Each of the major indexes lost more than 1.5 percent; the Dow Jones industrials fell about 200 points.

Bear skidded $24.45, or 43 percent, to $32.55.

Stocks showed moderate gains in the early going after a Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index remained flat for February. But the gains quickly disappeared after investors learned more about how close Bear Stearns appeared to have come to financial implosion.

Meanwhile, President Bush was in NY on Friday morning delivering a speech at the Economic Club of New York. He is expected to say that “better times are coming”….

YWN will bring you the text of Bush’s speech – which experts are calling “bullish”.