Global Economic Slowdown Weighs on Stock Market

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Like with the United Nations, the U.S. may be a key player, but it's not the only one, as one international crisis after another in the past 15 years moved markets all over the globe.Dale of Security Bellew says one third of long-term investors' equity allocation should be international, both developed and developing markets.Note that during much of the last decade international stocks outperformed US ones.During the commodities boom, countries rich in natural resources — Australia, Canada, Braz

Global economy slowdown play in evidence today:

FedEx (FDX) infection spreads in Transports-yesterday much of the weakness was in FDX alone, today that is different--FDX down 13% this week, more importantly stocks related to FDX that were not down yesterday are seeing selling today: GATX (GMT) and Landstar (LSTR) are good examples...these play in the rail/truckload/intermodal/shipping space.

Multi-industry companies--companies that manufacture many different products (electrical, machinery, tools, motors, air conditioning, etc.), that sell to many different businesses businesses across many countries--are down one to two percent: ABB (ABB), Parker Hannifin (PH), WESCO (WCC), Ingersoll Rand (IR), Regal-Beloit (RBC), Textron (TXT).

In addition, large global industrials in specific spaces are also weak: Cummins (CMI) and Goodyear (GT) (trucks and tires), Flowserve (FLS) (pumps), Fastenal (FAST) (bolts, fasteners), and Tyco (TYC)(locks, alarms).

Elsewhere:

1) Home builders/building materials are weak because of disappointment February Existing Home Sales did not top the psychologically important five million sales mark.

2) Oracle (ORCL): the slowdown in software was the surprise, and may reflect a shift to cloud...they are not losing business to competitors...some are speculating there are cheaper alternatives to traditional databases. Most analysts backing the company's line that a rapid increase in an improperly trained sales force is at the heart of the problem.

Oddly, while ORCL is down nine percent, other big software names are little affected: VMware (VMW), Teradata (TDC), and Red Hat (RHT) only down fractionally. Component makers Jabil Circuit (JBL) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU) are weaker.

3) Hot IPO tonight: Marin Software (MRIN) has the magic word--cloud based. In this case, a digital advertising management platform. Seven million shares at $11-$13...but the big talk is next week's IPO, Pinnacle Foods (PF), expected to price 29 million shares at $18-$20, one of the larger IPOs we have seen this year.... We're talking famous brand names like Birdseye and Aunt Jemima, Vlasic pickles. Blackstone took the company private in 2007.

—By CNBC's Bob Pisani