Shakeout!

As of this writing the major indices are off around 2 percent each.  I don’t like that word indices, how come some people just say indexes?  I’m going to go indexes from now on exclusively.

Anyway…

This follows a week in which the S&P’s momentum ground to a halt, the closes of last Tuesday and Friday were all within 4 points of each other.  On the surface that may have looked like complacency but beneath the surface, many of the market’s leaders were being whacked, one by one.  I pointed this out last week in my post Leaderless (from Friday).

Anyway, let’s have a look at where the damage is today by sector, you’ll be unsurprised to see that the frothiest cyclical plays (materials and industrials) are taking it the hardest:

The close will be meaningful, and don’t forget that we are getting into the heart of earnings season.