Reply #87: Come, we stick the fork in together.

[ozymandius]

Dow 12,110.41 Down 49.27 (0.41%)
Nasdaq 2,372.66 Down 6.04 (0.25%)
S&P 500 1,386.95 Down 5.33 (0.38%)
10-Yr Bond 4.545% Up 0.009
NYSE Volume 3,387,553,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,133,894,000

4:20 pm : Stocks snapped a two-day winning streak Friday as diminished hopes of the Fed easing early this year prompted investors to take some money off the table going into the weekend.

Before the bell, February core CPI rose a less than feared 0.2%, matching economists' forecasts and initially offering some comfort to the financial markets. However, since inflationary pressures aren't the market's main concern right now, as economic demand simply isn't strong enough to support higher levels of inflation, an overly pessimistic market instead viewed a report that also included a surprise 0.8% rise in food prices (the most since April 2005) as another hurdle for policy makers to justify a rate cut anytime soon.

Volume on the NYSE during the first 30 minutes of trading set a record due largely to today's quarterly options expiration (quadruple witching). But it wasn't long before a lot of the open interest in key futures contracts that helped to lift stocks earlier in the day had all but disappeared, fueling a new wave of selling interest that pushed the major averages into negative territory never to recover.

From a sector standpoint, Energy turned in the day's worst performance in sympathy with falling oil prices. After tumbling more than 2% intraday to a six- week low below $57/bbl, oil prices also influenced the day's action. Crude for April delivery closed down 0.8% near $57.10/bbl which is certainly good news for consumers going into the weekend, especially after higher gas prices pushed sentiment to six-month lows, but diminishing demand for oil merely exacerbated the market's underlying concerns about global economic weakness.

The biggest thorn in the market's side was an early reversal in Financials that removed influential leadership. The sector rolled over around 11:15 ET as this week's relief rally among beaten-down mortgage lenders and brokerage stocks, amid reassurance that subprime mortgage missteps have not spilled over to the credit markets, came to an end. DJ30 -49.27 NASDAQ -6.04 SP500 -5.33 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1832/1187/2.14 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2033/1206/1.83 bln

3:30 pm : The indices are off their lows going into the close but sellers remain in complete control of the action. Telecom has recently inched into positive territory; but with only a 3.5% weighting on the S&P 500, it's easy to see why it's turnaround has had minimal impact on the broader market.

Currently, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 1.4%, 1.2% and 0.8%, respectively, for the week. DJ30 -41.56 NASDAQ -7.32 SP500 -5.38 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1918/1039/1.76 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 2142/1093/1.54 bln