In Commodities Bloodbath Gold Holds Up Well; Equities Plunge 4%; Dow Drops 512 Points; Crashes Happen When "Oversold"

Nearly everything was smashed today except much despised US treasuries, the US dollar, and the Swiss Franc. The latter held up in spite of Swiss central bank intervention.

The Dow closed down over 500 points, about 4.12%. Percentage-wise the S&P 500 performed even worse, down 4.5%. The Nasdaq 100 Index was clobbered nearly 100 points or 4.23%. The Nasdaq composite was down 137 points, slightly over 5%.

Here is a screenshot right after the close.

Equities Bloodbath



click on chart for sharper image

ES and NQ are the symbols for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures.

The only thing green on my screen were the $VIX, TLT (the Lehman long-term treasury fund), and DUG (an inverse energy ETF).

The following screen shots were taken about a half hour before the close.

Energy Futures



Currency Futures



Note that the Swiss Franc was green in spite of currency intervention. See Quantitative Easing Begins in Switzerland to Counteract Soaring Swiss Franc, Central Bank "Aims to Bring 3-Month LIBOR to 0%"; Gold Soars for details.
Grain Futures



Metal Futures



The $HUI was blasted 5.59% but Gold was down less than 1%. It continues to act like a currency. Silver continues to act like a derivatives plaything, down 7.2%.

Last evening in an interview with Chris Martenson I said "This is not a prediction Chris, but markets does not crash on overbought conditions, they crash on oversold conditions."

This is not a crash yet, but it could very well be the start of one.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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