That gave GM a market capitalization of $4.3 billion - chump change for this industrial behemoth - while Ford stood only slightly better at $6.6 billion.

The stock selloff effectively puts these companies on death watch and it is easy to see why.

This would be part of why no one is willing to float anymore loans to them and they had to get a $25 billion bailout last month.

The GM, Ford death watch - Oct. 9, 2008