Stocks Finish Sharply Lower on Global Growth Worries, Financial Sector Concerns

Indices
S&P 500 1,407.22 -2.32%
DJIA 12,743.44 -1.83%
NASDAQ 2,540.99 -2.14%
Russell 2000 735.07 -2.64%
Wilshire 5000 14,151.62 -2.17%
Russell 1000 Growth 587.11 -1.86%
Russell 1000 Value 762.17 -2.56%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 728.91 -1.22%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 936.36 -1.93%
Morgan Stanley Technology 590.43 -2.37%
Transports 4,384.36 -1.50%
Utilities 520.12 -.69%
MSCI Emerging Markets 146.17 -.54%

Sentiment/Internals
Total Put/Call .97 +15.48%
NYSE Arms 1.99 +411.32%
Volatility(VIX) 28.91 +12.89%
ISE Sentiment 103.0 -29.93%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil $97.08 -1.12%
Reformulated Gasoline 242.79 -1.58%
Natural Gas 7.72 +.31%
Heating Oil 269.57 -.31%
Gold 823.10 -.19%
Base Metals 222.72 +1.80%
Copper 299.50 -1.14%

Economy
10-year US Treasury Yield 3.84% -16 basis points
US Dollar 74.79 -.35%
CRB Index 353.37 -.26%

Leading Sectors
HMOs +.34%
Hospitals -.54%
Utilities -.69%

Lagging Sectors
Steel -4.0%
Banks -4.5%
Homebuilders -5.43%

Evening Review
Market Performance Summary
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Sector Performance
ETF Performance
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After-hours Commentary
After-hours Movers
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In Play

Afternoon Recommendations
Oppenheimer:
- Rated (RDEA) Buy, target $15.

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Countrywide Financial(CFC) fell more than 10% in NYSE trading after NY Democratic Senator Charles Schumer urged the Federal Home Loan Bank system to probe cash advances to the largest US mortgage lender.
- A US court won’t reconsider its ruling last month that companies operating fantasy sports leagues have a First Amendment right to use players’ names and statistics for free.
- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden plans to release a message intended for Europeans, private intelligence company SITE Intelligence Group said today.

CNBC:
- Yahoo! Inc.’s(YHOO) servers for small businesses have not been operating since this morning, citing customers.

Nikkei English News:
- Matsushita Electric Industrial and Ebara Corp. are among Japanese companies planning to mass produce residential fuel cells.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished slightly lower today as losses in my Retail longs, Biotech longs and Semi longs more than offset gains in my (TLT) long, commodities shorts, emerging market shorts and index hedges. I did not trade in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 75% net long. The tone of the market was very negative today as the advance/decline line finished substantially lower, almost every sector fell and volume was about average. Measures of investor anxiety were high into the close. Today's overall market action was very bearish. Investors are once again ignoring the positives and focusing on the negatives. Nikkei futures are indicating a down -285 open in Japan. I still think an imminent recession in the U.S. is virtually impossible if not accompanied by a significant slowdown overseas. Investors continue to price in this scenario, despite little evidence its occurrence.