8:48 A.M. Dow -0.85%, S&P 500 -1.7%. Stocks sold off early this morning and then began to recover before settling back. 'If' the markets can hold in here, we have a reasonable shot at moving higher.
6:30 P.M. Dow -5.56%, S&P 500 - 6.71%. A reversal day looked very promising until democrats decided to hold off voting on an auto bailout plan. GM and Ford were both up strongly but petered out when news came across the wire and closed with very minor gains.
Everything across the board was hammered. Stocks are now at or below their 2002 lows. It has been 21 years since we've seen back-to-back days with 90% of stocks on the NYSE losing value from the previous day. It has happened five times since 1950 and in most cases the market has been higher 3 months later.
This is unprecedented selling and despite all of the extreme panic conditions that have been met both on a technical and psychological basis, it hasn't mattered. Todays volume was very high potentially could have been a washout day but usually you like to see a reversal intra-day accompany them.
The Dow is -44% from its high, the S&P 500 -50%, and the Nasdaq -51%, and the Russell 2000 index is -54%. These are all percentage declines on-par with most of the worst bear markets in history.
Have a nice evening!
Arthur Daret