Both issues now pay 13.71 percent, a rate that varies with Treasury rates.

Companies have complained that the Treasury rate is now artificially low, making their pension obligations balloon.

But when the Treasury rate clicked back up to 7.54 percent, stock prices fell.

Long-term Treasury rates fell to their lowest level in 30 years.

Long-term Treasury rates, which set the price for other debt securities, are roughly 2 percentage points higher now than their low point in May 1986.

Since 1987, companies have been required to use the 30-year Treasury rate as a factor in their pension calculations.

For deposits exceeding $200,000, the national rate would be 2 percentage points above the Treasury rate.

"I think this economic slowdown is not as strong as what Treasury rates are telling us," he said.

In any case, the plunging funds rate had little if any impact on other short-term Treasury rates.

Long-term Treasury rates fell to their lowest level in 30 years yesterday, but the stock market's increasingly painful slide continued.