Mounting debt problems in Europe drove stocks lower

Lingering worries about the debts of Greece, Spain & Portugal took stock prices lower. Dow dropped at the start & tried to rally. After that failed, it wandered lower to close at the lows of the day. Once again the Dow is sub 10K (9908 to be exact), this time approaching a 10% retreat from its high reached last month. Dow ended down 103, decliners over advancers better than 3-2 & NAZ fell 15. These figures understate the gloom on Wall Street. I remember one money manager last week saying banks will not lead the markets higher this time. He may be right but banks are leading lower & markets are following. The Financial Index is returning to levels from Jul.

S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value 183.60

Change -4.14

% Change -2.2%

Despite lower markets, MLPs did well. The Alerian MLP Index gained 1.82 to under 278 after touching 280 earlier in the session. The REIT index fell 4¼, down 23 from its high in Dec. Junk bond funds were down modestly. Treasuries continued lower, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond retained the 5 basis point advance from the AM.


Alerian MLP Index YTD




Dow Jones REIT Index --- YTD








It seems like all the cold weather & snow should bring a bigger day for oil. But oil bulls as well as gold bulls will take today's up market.

CLH10.NYM

..Crude Oil Mar 10

..71.82

.. 0.63 ......(0.9%)

GCG10.CMX

..Gold Feb 10

..1,065.10

..12.20 ......(1.2%)

Gold Super Cycle Click Here



Toyota (TM) is saying their current troubles will cost over $2B. The cost related to lost sales because customer emotions steered them away from dealer showroom can never be calculated. Their 3 year chart gives a longer term perspective & is starting to look like charts of their American cousins from a couple of years ago. Today TM dropped 1.86 to 72.85

Toyota Recall Cost Will Exceed $2 Billion Estimate, Lawyers Say


Toyota --- 3 years









Find out what's inside Trend TV Click Here



Markets are back to treading water. This is the logical aftermath after Q4 earnings with guidance for 2010 did not get high marks. On the overnight session last night, Asian markets headed lower & looks like they will repeat that performance in their Tues session beginning in a few hours. The Dow chart is very discouraging made worse by strong selling going into at today's close.

Dow Jones Industrials --- YTD