One Ugly Day!!

Dow declined 358 to a new yearly low (11,453), decliners over advancers better than 5-1 while NAZ dropped 80. The S&P500 closed at 1283, within striking distance of the important 1270 level. This is watched more closely than the Dow, if that doesn't hold look out below!

Bleeding will Continue

NYSE volume increased to 1.5B, with 90% downside trades. While above recent low numbers this is not exceptional, more in line with figures from last year.

Helping to bring out sellers, oil reached another record topping 140 with a close at 139.64, up 5.09. Obviously the implications for future inflation numbers are not pretty. Just about everything went down, even oils! There were 424 new lows on NYSE, led by some of the biggest names out there. The Alerian MLP index dropped 5 (its biggest drop in some time) to under 282, a new short term low. Sellers may be getting ready to test the 262 low in March. Not much to say when there was bleeding all day which decided nothing.

There were a few comments by analysts on Bloomberg TV talking about doing your homework, getting ready to take advantage of buying opportunities. Maybe they read my blog, I agree. When Citigroup (C) and General Motors (GM), 2 Dow stocks, are given prominent selling recommendations, markets have problems. Over the short term it looks like there will be more pain.