North American stocks are poised for a rebound on Tuesday following the worst single-day points slide on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Dow Jones industrial average as investors go bargain-hunting. They are also gambling on the U.S. government to revive the bailout plan that will revive the U.S. financial system.

Congress’s rejection of the US$700-billion bailout package on Monday afternoon rattled markets on Monday, as the S&P/TSX composite index tumbled 840.93 points, or 6.94%, to close at 11,285.07 while the S&P/TSX Venture composite index plunged almost 9, falling 133.61 points to close at 1,382.03. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 777.68 points, or 7%, to close at 10,365.45 while the S&P 500 index fell 106.59 points, or 8.8%, to 1,106.42 and the Nasdaq composite index plunged 199.61 points, or 9.1%, to 1,983.73.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 4.1% in Tokyo on Tuesday, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed higher and several other Asian indices trimmed losses. In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index climbed 0.84% after tumbling in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed at 4,817.79 and France’s CAC up 0.3%.

On Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush spoke for the second consecutive morning, urging Congress to work something out and get the bailout package passed. Otherwise, he warned that the economic damage will be “painful and lasting”; he added that the economy is depending on decisive action by the government. “For the financial security of every American, Congress must act,” he said.

The earliest that Congress would be able to vote on the now-rejected plan, or some re-worked version, would be Thursday as the U.S. House is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

In other distressing news, prices of single-family homes in the U.S. plunged a record 16.3% in July from a year earlier, extending declines that have plagued the U.S. housing market for two years now, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price indices. On the bright side, however, the pace of home price declines has slowed in the past three months, S&P said.