Today’s Sell-Off: Don’t Worry...Yet
By: 
You can divide this day into four simple parts:
1) 7:15 a.m. ET: European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said weakness in Europe is starting to affect Germany; U.S. futures, which were flat, drop about 10 points;
(Read more: ECB's Draghi: Euro Zone Slowdown Hurting Germany)
2) 9:30 a.m. ET: The U.S. open — stocks open weak, with particular weakness in sectors believed to be affected by Obama: coal, defense, energy, banks, dividend-sensitive; and the S&P 500 index drops another 10 points.
(Read more: Dismayed at Obama Win but…Good for Stocks: Gartman)
3) 10:50 a.m. ET: Apple breaks through the $564, which is a 20 percent correction from the historic high of $705.07 on Sept. 21; S&P 500 drops another 8 points or so in the following 10 minutes.
4) 11:30 a.m. ET: The European close, U.S. stocks bottom — a surge of selling in the U.S. exactly at the European close strongly suggests that much of the selling pressure in the U.S. was coming from European fund managers.
Why I am not worried, yet:
1) this was a very orderly sell-off. At no point was there any panic, and while volume was on the heavy side it was not what I would call a volatile day. We did not have 10-point sudden jerks up and down in the S&P 500, for example.
(Read more: Stocks Dive 2%; Dow Skids 300, S&P Breaks 1,400)
2) one reason it's been so orderly: people are still underinvested, so many are not rushing in to buy protection.
The Volatility Index (VIX) remains muted: it did move up to 18.8 from 17.5 the day before, but if there was real panic it would have popped well over 20; the VIX futures going out into early 2013 did not change dramatically, nor did the curve steepen appreciably.
—By CNBC's Bob Pisani
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