Last hour selling drags down stocks

Dow dropped 86, decliners were ahead of advancers almost 2-1 & NAZ fell 11. Dow spent much of the day hovering near break even but sold off in the last hour. Banks have been having a difficult time attracting fans, the Financial Index has not been above 200 for a month. Today banks were lower with much of the selling going into the close.


S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value 192.92

Change -4.06

% Change -2.1%

The Alerian MLP Index was down only 2 pennies in the 266s & the REIT index dropped 2. Junk bond funds were off fractionally from their yearly highs. Treasuries fell, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose 6 basis points to 3.38% as it returns to the 3½% level it has been close to for several months.


Alerian MLP Index --- 2 months




Dow Jones REIT Index --- 3 months





Oil & gold improved during the day. Gold at a new record level sounds like a broken record!

CLF10.NYM

..Crude Oil Jan 10

..76.27

.. 0.33 ......(0.43%)

GCZ09.CMX

..Gold Dec 09

..1,217.70

..5.70 ..(0.5%)

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing businesses, making up almost 90% of the economy, fell to 48.7 in Nov from 50.6 in Oct. The forecast was for a gain to 51.5. Fifty is the dividing line between expansion & contraction.

•Services Industry in U.S. Unexpectedly Shrinks as Job Losses Hit Spending

Non-manufacturing Index - 1 year





Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) was one of the retailers with dreary Nov sales. That's being kind, their Nov sales plunged 17% making it one of the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500. The stock fell more than 8% to the 36s & is down 15% from its 2009 reached last month.

Retailers Offer Up Soft Same-Store Salesat Fox Business

Abercrombie & Fitch -- 1 year





The news today was muddled with a negative bias, not making the future any clearer. Markets treated the announcements with a big yawn until selling began in the last hour. Volume continues light, NYSE floor volume was only 1.1B shares.

Dow Jones Industrials --- 2 months