- 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
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
TRADER TALK VIDEO GALLERY
TRADER TALK RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- Trader Talk
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- For Many in US, It Will Be a Scaled-Down Holiday Season
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
- 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
- Light Volume Has Traders Complaining
- Gold Shatters Another Record
- Have Retailers Reached Their Limits?
- The Retail Mind Game
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes