Domestic markets’ relative calm response to a weekend bailout plan by the Federal Reserve and investment bank J.P. Morgan Chase to sell Bear Stearns at $2 a share stood in stark contrast to the reaction around the globe.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 100 points shortly before closing. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, however, were in negative territory.

Financial and energy shares were the biggest losers. Shares of Bear Stearns, National City Corp., Citi Group and Lehman Brothers led the decline in financial stocks, according to S&P, while shares of J.P. Morgan Chase surged.

“It looks like the markets have taken the Bear Stearns situation fairly well, except for the financial stocks; they are all continuing to get whacked,” Randy Bateman, chief investment officer for Huntington Asset Advisors, said. “Internationally, everything looks pretty bad, but . . . the domestic market seems to be holding up pretty well.”

The Dow was down by more than 170 points, or more than 4 percent, after the first 15 minutes of trading, but it steadily rallied back and fluctuated throughout the day.

Events over the weekend set the stage for a chaotic week, as investors looked ahead to profit reports from Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and other financial firms for a sense of how deeply they have been hurt by the same problems that engulfed Bear Stearns. The Fed will meet on interest rates beginning Tuesday, and analysts expect even more aggressive interest rate reductions following a set of emergency measures announced by the central bank yesterday.

The Fed’s actions yesterday, coupled with the sale of Bear Stearns, presented traders with a test of sorts as U.S. markets opened — whether to take solace that the Fed was moving aggressively to keep markets functioning or to worry that the fate of Bear Stearns, the country’s fifth-largest investment bank, represents the shape of things to come. In addition, a new report showed that U.S. industrial production slipped in February, adding a continued U.S. economic slowdown to the list of problems confronting policymakers. Industrial production fell 0.5 percent, according to new figures released by the Fed, an unexpected drop.

“We are in challenging times,” President Bush said in brief remarks after meeting with top economic advisers. “In the long run, our economy will be fine. Right now we are dealing with a difficult situation.”

Referring to the weekend’s move by the Fed to lower interest rates and increase its lending authority, Bush said, “We have taken strong and decisive action. The Fed has moved quickly to bring order to the financial markets.”

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. later told reporters that the Bear Stearn sale shows “what happens when there is a liquidity problem.” But he said the sale was a much better outcome than declaring bankruptcy would have been.

Answering questions outside the White House after a meeting with Bush and a presidential working group on financial markets, Paulson said, “We place a high priority on the orderliness of our financial markets. . . . Bear Stearns had a liquidity crisis. And so, we felt it was very important that this be resolved as a way to minimize impact on our economy. . . . And it was important that this be resolved before the markets opened in Asia on Sunday afternoon.”