NEW YORK » Financial markets reacted cautiously to the Senate's passage of the banking bailout plan late yesterday, with stock index futures falling and indicating a drop when trading resumed today. There was no discernible change in the credit markets after the vote.

Investors may be taking a wait-and-see approach until the House votes on the plan tomorrow. It was the House's defeat of the plan Monday that sent the Dow plunging 778 points. But the caution also may be due to the fact that passage of the plan wouldn't immediately erase the problems in the financial system, including credit markets that are currently stagnant.

Last night, Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 85, or 0.78 percent, at 10,802. The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures were down 9.8, or 0.84 percent, at 1,158.60, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 17.75, or 1.1 percent, at 1,561.00.

Caution was also apparent in yesterday's trading, which saw the Dow Jones industrials falling about 20 points after being down more than 200 earlier. The close was vastly different from the massive swings in the blue chips the first two sessions of the week.

Wall Street's focus has been on credit markets that seem to be barely moving, and in turn, posing a threat to economic growth.

Nervousness about debt has made banks hesitant to extend loans; banks have preferred to hold onto their cash. But some analysts and policymakers are worried that drop in lending will curtail economic growth. And the fear paralyzing the credit markets is making it more difficult and expensive for some companies to fund their day-to-day operations, putting basics like payroll at risk.

The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, on overnight dollar loans dropped to 3.79 percent yesterday from Tuesday's record 6.88 percent. Libor measures how much banks are charging one another to borrow. Many consumer lending rates, including about half of all U.S. adjustable-rate mortgages, are tied to Libor.

But overnight Libor remains well above the target Fed funds rate of 2 percent, showing that banks are still tending to hoard their cash rather than lend it.

Demand for the safety of government debt increased yesterday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.74 percent from 3.83 percent late Tuesday. The yield on the 3-month T-bill, the safest type of investment, fell to 0.79 percent from 0.88 percent late Tuesday - and it stayed there after the Senate vote. The fall in yields indicates that investors are willing to accept even modest returns to protect their money.

In yesterday's trading, the Dow fell 19.59, or 0.18 percent, to 10,831.07. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.30, or 0.45 percent, to 1,161.06, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 22.48, or 1.07 percent, to 2,069.40. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 7.99, or 1.18 percent, to 671.59.

Light, sweet crude fell $2.11 to settle at $98.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

  The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.