U.S. government and taxpayers out of the auto industry bailout

This final note on the way out. The biggest trade in the markets today — definitely the most symbolic — might have been 98,000 shares of Chrysler that went for $560 million. With it, the United States government and American taxpayers officially got out of the car business.

The Treasury Department sold its last stake in Chrysler today to Fiat, which gives the Italian carmaker a 53.5 percent stake. Most of the rest is owned by the United Auto Workers, which will in theory unload it when Chrysler goes public again, sometime in the next year or two.