- The Risk Trade Has Not Gone Away—Yet
- Black Friday No Disaster, But Retail May Be Dead For A Bit
- Traders Focus On The Homefront
- Despite Dubai, U.S. Markets Calm
- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
TRADER TALK RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Dubai Stocks Could Fall a Further 30%: Charts
- Dubai World Set to Restructure About $26 Billion of Total Debt
- Good Sign for the Economy: 'Greed' Makes a Comeback
- Dubai Markets Open Sharply Lower for Second Day
- Should Homeowners Be Able To Walk Away From Mortgage?
- Bove: 26 Banks May Need To Raise More Capital
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis After 5 Seasons
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- We're Approaching a Market Bubble: Portfolio Manager
- Hershey Shares: What Options Are Saying
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Cutting Jobless Will Take Time: White House's Summers
- GE, Vivendi Agree to Value NBCU Stake at $5.8 Billion
- Tuesday's ISM in Focus as Bulls Call for Turn in Dollar
- Arrest Imminent in Florida Ponzi Case: Report
- Cramer: Dubai Can’t Sink These 6 Dividend Stocks
- White House to Crank Up Pressure on Mortgage Industry
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- Good Sign for the Economy: 'Greed' Makes a Comeback
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
More Videos
Trader Talk
Text Size 
You knew it was going to happen. I've noted that energy and material stocks have notably outperformed the rest of the market for the past several days.
Today, they took profits in these two sectors, with big names like AK Steel [AKS
Loading...
()
] (down 7 percent), coal producer Massey [MEE
Loading...
()
] (down 6.2 percent) and oil service giant Nabors [NBR
Loading...
()
] (down 7 percent) all going from positive to negative right about 2 pm ET.
What happened? The simple answer is that we know that demand for commodities will remain weak until we work through the global recession, and the markets will not allow these groups to get too far ahead of everyone else.
Some would also like to blame the selloff on JP Morgan [JPM
Loading...
()
] CEO Jamie Dimon, who noted in a 2 pm ET interview on CNBC that while November was bad, December was looking terrible as well, and that 2009 was looking "tough."
Financials were weak all day, but weakened again just before 3 pm ET. US Bancorp [USB
Loading...
()
] provided an update on the fourth quarter this morning, and the bottom line is that there is good likelihood of a jump in bad loans, and that the environment remains "difficult."
Nothing new here from Dimon or US Bancorp, but a reminder that the environment is not improving is always bracing for traders.
The REIT index has rallied 60 percent off its November lows at the close yesterday; today it gave back about half of those gains. Many of the big names were down 20 percent.
What happened? Again, nothing new. REITs face refinancing risks as large mortgages come due, and the market reminded traders not to take rallies too far, too fast.
UPDATE: Futures are a bit weaker on a report that hedge fund manager Bernie Madoff was arrested and charged with criminal securities fraud. Mr. Madoff ran a large hedge fund and was well known on the Street, and was very successful, though he refused to ever discuss how exactly he made his money.
Questions? Comments?
POPULAR TRADER TALK POSTS
- The Risk Trade Has Not Gone Away—Yet
- Black Friday No Disaster, But Retail May Be Dead For A Bit
- Traders Focus On The Homefront
- Despite Dubai, U.S. Markets Calm
- Stocks Lurking Near New Highs Again
- Risk Trade Is Back On
- This Week's Biggest Story: The Dollar
- Corporate Issuance Continues at Torrid Pace
- The Bernanke Dollar Bounce & Gross Says Forget About Rate Hike
- Colgate Really Sparkles After Hours
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes