As you can see its all about the light sweet crude barrel price.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:user="urn:www.briefing.com" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><TBODY><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>15:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -139, Nasdaq -20, S&P -13.72</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Major indices still trade near their lows of the session heading into the final hour of trading... One of the most influential leaders to the downside has been retail (RLX -2.1%) after Home Depot (HD 40.38 -1.64) failed to post stronger than expected Q4 earnings and upside FY05 guidance... Rival Lowe's Cos. (LOW 57.54 -1.21), which reports Q4 earnings tomorrow, has fallen in sympathy while Wal-Mart (WMT 52.12 -0.60) has also been under pressure after reaffirming Feb same store sales growth of 2-4%... Kohl's Corp (KSS 45.88 -0.75) has also sold off following news that it will restate earnings beginning from FY98 while J.C. Penney (JCP 43.37 -0.28), despite an upgrade to Buy at Deutsche Bank, has also been weak... Gaining ground, however, have been shares of May Department Stores (MAY 33.68 +0.23) which has suspended its search for a CEO as merger talks with rival Federated Department Stores (FD 55.21 -1.51) gain momentum... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 830/2500. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 930/2191. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -134, Nasdaq -19, S&P -13.10</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Market sells off as oil prices touch their highest levels of the session... Renewed buying interest in the March crude oil futures contract, which will be replaced by the April contract upon expiration today, has recently surpassed $51/bbl, pushing the commodity to a three-month high... Both the Dow and S&P have now lost more than 1.0% on the day after falling below their 50-day simple moving averages of 10656.20 and 1193.81, respectively... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 850/2468. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 943/2189. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -112, Nasdaq -15, S&P -11.24</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Selling remains the name of the game as losses remain widespread across most areas... Even the dollar, which has fallen the most in four months against the yen (104.18) and declined versus the euro (1.3257), has sold off after South Korea's central bank announced plans to seek higher returns for its $200 bln in currency reserves in regions other than the U.S., likely lessening its exposure to treasuries... The move has intensified concerns that demand for the dollar-denominated debt will diminish throughout the rest of the world... South Korea owns about $69 bln in U.S. Treasury securities while Japan and China lead the list of foreign investors with roughly $711 bln and $194 bln, respectively... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 910/2404. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 980/2131. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -96, Nasdaq -13, S&P -9.35</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Not much changed in the last half hour as most stocks remain range-bound in afternoon trading... The S&P Energy Index (+0.02%), however, has recently given up much of today's gains despite a continued surge in the oil prices ($50.65/bbl +$2.30), as the Oil Service Index (OSX -0.4%) has turned negative for the first time today... Even ExxonMobil (XOM 59.10 -0.31), which became the largest company in the world by market cap last Friday, has lost ground as investors book intra-day profits... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 930/2360. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 997/2080. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -96, Nasdaq -15, S&P -9.31</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Indices continue to languish near their lows of the session as buying interest remains scarce across the board... One area extending last week's gains, however, has been the drug sector after an FDA advisory panel last Friday recommended that Merck's (MRK 31.43 -1.18) arthritis drug Vioxx be reinstated for sale in the U.S. albeit with a stern warning... Even though the drug maker, despite being upgraded to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, has succumbed to profit taking following last week's strong performance, solid gains in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK 48.89 +1.33) and competitor AstraZeneca (AZN 41.15 +1.34) amid takeover speculation have offset weakness in MRK and rival Pfizer (PFE 26.57 -0.23)... Shares of Novartis (NVS 50.56 +1.66) have also surged as its $8.3 bln bid for Hexal and Eon Labs will make it the No. 1 generic drug maker in the world... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 941/2312. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 934/2083. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -94, Nasdaq -14, S&P -8.99</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] A breakdown in technical levels pushes the indices to their lowest levels of the session... Within the last half hour, the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq have all failed to find secondary support near 10710, 1195 and 2049, respectively... That said, a bearish bias remains firmly intact as decliners on the NYSE still hold a nearly 2 to 1 edge over advancers while declining issues on the Nasdaq hold an 18 to 11 margin over advancing issues... The ratio of down to up volumes, however, has told a surprisingly different story, as there are no significant disparities between either on both the Big Board and the Composite... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1126/2095. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1171/1830. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -50, Nasdaq -4, S&P -3.92</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Market still unable to abandon negative stance midday, despite encouraging economic data, in the wake of higher oil prices, mixed earnings & guidance and a weaker dollar... Feb consumer confidence fell to 104.0, versus an upwardly revised Jan figure of 105.1, but checked in slightly better than the 103.0 economists expected... However, a 4.0% surge in March crude oil futures ($50.45/bbl +$+2.10) due to unusually cold weather in the Northeast and worries over OPEC cutbacks, has kept the commodity above a more acceptable $40-50/bbl range and reignited inflation concerns... Retail (-1.2%) has been under pressure after Home Depot (HD 40.69 -1.33) merely matched Q4 expectations and reaffirmed FY05 guidance while Federated Dept. Stores (FD 55.81 -0.81) beat Q4 forecasts by a penny but guided Q1 earnings below consensus... Renewed strength in semiconductor (+1.4%) and networking (+0.9%), following positive comments from Smith Barney, has offset modest weakness in disk drive and hardware but selling pressure persists in areas such as financial, transportation, utility, health care, consumer staple and homebuilding... The pharmaceutical sector (+1.0%), however, has surged amid easing concerns about regulatory restrictions following Friday's FDA panel decision regarding painkillers and renewed M&A activity, while energy (+1.0%) has extended last week's gains, benefiting from higher oil prices... Materials stocks (+0.3%) have also found buying interest at the expense of a weaker dollar... The greenback has lost more than 1.0% against both the euro (1.3228) and the yen (104.25) following reports that South Korea could lighten up its investments in U.S. Treasury bonds... Treasuries have shrugged off the consumer confidence data and traded in relatively tight ranges most of the morning ahead of tomorrow's more important CPI data... The benchmark 10-year note is off 3 ticks to yield 4.27%... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1119/2058. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1190/1772.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:user="urn:www.briefing.com" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><TBODY><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>15:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -139, Nasdaq -20, S&P -13.72</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Major indices still trade near their lows of the session heading into the final hour of trading... One of the most influential leaders to the downside has been retail (RLX -2.1%) after Home Depot (HD 40.38 -1.64) failed to post stronger than expected Q4 earnings and upside FY05 guidance... Rival Lowe's Cos. (LOW 57.54 -1.21), which reports Q4 earnings tomorrow, has fallen in sympathy while Wal-Mart (WMT 52.12 -0.60) has also been under pressure after reaffirming Feb same store sales growth of 2-4%... Kohl's Corp (KSS 45.88 -0.75) has also sold off following news that it will restate earnings beginning from FY98 while J.C. Penney (JCP 43.37 -0.28), despite an upgrade to Buy at Deutsche Bank, has also been weak... Gaining ground, however, have been shares of May Department Stores (MAY 33.68 +0.23) which has suspended its search for a CEO as merger talks with rival Federated Department Stores (FD 55.21 -1.51) gain momentum... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 830/2500. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 930/2191. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -134, Nasdaq -19, S&P -13.10</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Market sells off as oil prices touch their highest levels of the session... Renewed buying interest in the March crude oil futures contract, which will be replaced by the April contract upon expiration today, has recently surpassed $51/bbl, pushing the commodity to a three-month high... Both the Dow and S&P have now lost more than 1.0% on the day after falling below their 50-day simple moving averages of 10656.20 and 1193.81, respectively... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 850/2468. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 943/2189. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>14:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -112, Nasdaq -15, S&P -11.24</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Selling remains the name of the game as losses remain widespread across most areas... Even the dollar, which has fallen the most in four months against the yen (104.18) and declined versus the euro (1.3257), has sold off after South Korea's central bank announced plans to seek higher returns for its $200 bln in currency reserves in regions other than the U.S., likely lessening its exposure to treasuries... The move has intensified concerns that demand for the dollar-denominated debt will diminish throughout the rest of the world... South Korea owns about $69 bln in U.S. Treasury securities while Japan and China lead the list of foreign investors with roughly $711 bln and $194 bln, respectively... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 910/2404. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 980/2131. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -96, Nasdaq -13, S&P -9.35</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Not much changed in the last half hour as most stocks remain range-bound in afternoon trading... The S&P Energy Index (+0.02%), however, has recently given up much of today's gains despite a continued surge in the oil prices ($50.65/bbl +$2.30), as the Oil Service Index (OSX -0.4%) has turned negative for the first time today... Even ExxonMobil (XOM 59.10 -0.31), which became the largest company in the world by market cap last Friday, has lost ground as investors book intra-day profits... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 930/2360. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 997/2080. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>13:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -96, Nasdaq -15, S&P -9.31</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Indices continue to languish near their lows of the session as buying interest remains scarce across the board... One area extending last week's gains, however, has been the drug sector after an FDA advisory panel last Friday recommended that Merck's (MRK 31.43 -1.18) arthritis drug Vioxx be reinstated for sale in the U.S. albeit with a stern warning... Even though the drug maker, despite being upgraded to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, has succumbed to profit taking following last week's strong performance, solid gains in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK 48.89 +1.33) and competitor AstraZeneca (AZN 41.15 +1.34) amid takeover speculation have offset weakness in MRK and rival Pfizer (PFE 26.57 -0.23)... Shares of Novartis (NVS 50.56 +1.66) have also surged as its $8.3 bln bid for Hexal and Eon Labs will make it the No. 1 generic drug maker in the world... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 941/2312. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 934/2083. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:30 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -94, Nasdaq -14, S&P -8.99</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] A breakdown in technical levels pushes the indices to their lowest levels of the session... Within the last half hour, the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq have all failed to find secondary support near 10710, 1195 and 2049, respectively... That said, a bearish bias remains firmly intact as decliners on the NYSE still hold a nearly 2 to 1 edge over advancers while declining issues on the Nasdaq hold an 18 to 11 margin over advancing issues... The ratio of down to up volumes, however, has told a surprisingly different story, as there are no significant disparities between either on both the Big Board and the Composite... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1126/2095. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1171/1830. </TD></TR><TR><TD height=14></TD></TR><TR><TD class=st-Time vAlign=baseline noWrap>12:00 ET </TD><TD class=storyTitle vAlign=top>Dow -50, Nasdaq -4, S&P -3.92</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD class=st-Art>[BRIEFING.COM] Market still unable to abandon negative stance midday, despite encouraging economic data, in the wake of higher oil prices, mixed earnings & guidance and a weaker dollar... Feb consumer confidence fell to 104.0, versus an upwardly revised Jan figure of 105.1, but checked in slightly better than the 103.0 economists expected... However, a 4.0% surge in March crude oil futures ($50.45/bbl +$+2.10) due to unusually cold weather in the Northeast and worries over OPEC cutbacks, has kept the commodity above a more acceptable $40-50/bbl range and reignited inflation concerns... Retail (-1.2%) has been under pressure after Home Depot (HD 40.69 -1.33) merely matched Q4 expectations and reaffirmed FY05 guidance while Federated Dept. Stores (FD 55.81 -0.81) beat Q4 forecasts by a penny but guided Q1 earnings below consensus... Renewed strength in semiconductor (+1.4%) and networking (+0.9%), following positive comments from Smith Barney, has offset modest weakness in disk drive and hardware but selling pressure persists in areas such as financial, transportation, utility, health care, consumer staple and homebuilding... The pharmaceutical sector (+1.0%), however, has surged amid easing concerns about regulatory restrictions following Friday's FDA panel decision regarding painkillers and renewed M&A activity, while energy (+1.0%) has extended last week's gains, benefiting from higher oil prices... Materials stocks (+0.3%) have also found buying interest at the expense of a weaker dollar... The greenback has lost more than 1.0% against both the euro (1.3228) and the yen (104.25) following reports that South Korea could lighten up its investments in U.S. Treasury bonds... Treasuries have shrugged off the consumer confidence data and traded in relatively tight ranges most of the morning ahead of tomorrow's more important CPI data... The benchmark 10-year note is off 3 ticks to yield 4.27%... ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1119/2058. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1190/1772.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Glaken said:
I used to work analyzing oil prices. As quickly as prices can go up this time of year they reverse and go down. It is oil silly season and this year is no different. OPEC is always thinking of cutting supply, cold waves scare investors for no apparent reason (trust me, they won't run out of heating oil at this time of year), and February is usually a weak month for the stock market so it all adds up to big volatile moves. Look at the VIX today, that should tell much of the story.
I personally wouldn't put much into it. Just traders messing around. Oil price increase right now might work out well for the economy, it will convince OPEC they have no need to cut supplies right now. Let the cheating begin OPEC nations and watch oil prices get back to under $40 by summer.
