NEW YORK—Wall Street plunged anew Friday after a near meltdown at Bear Stearns Cos. handed investors the unwelcome confirmation that the credit market’s troubles are far from over. Word that the investment bank needed rescuing touched off a wave of selling that left each of the major indexes down more than 1.5 percent on the day; the Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 200 points.

The plan by the New York Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. offers Bear Stearns relief from a sudden liquidity crunch that analysts surmised could have felled the investment bank. But the compa...

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