NASDAQ

Remember last Friday? The Dow screamed 140 points higher in the last hour of the day to "prove" everything was awesome into the weekend. It wasn't! With The Dow down 300 points today, it is now 600 points below those panic-buying highs just a week ago...

Moments ago, US equity futures tumbled to their lowest level in the overnight session, down 22 points or 1.1% to 1924, following both Europe (Eurostoxx 600 -1.8%, giving up more than half of yesterday's gains, led by the banking sector) and Japan (Nikkei -2.2%), and pretty much across the board as DM bonds are bid, EM assets are all weaker, oil and commodities are lower in what is shaping up to be another EM driven "risk off" day. Only this time one can't blame the usual scapegoat China whose market is shut for the long weekend.

Now that we’re in the classic “crash season,” the situation only looks worse. This season technically started in mid-August, and won’t end until mid-October. This is not to say the chaos won’t continue later on into the end of this year. It just means the worst decline, this first wave down, is likely to come in the next several weeks. So consider this current bounce a gift. The signs are all there that this global bubble is done. Use this time to get out of any passive investments in stocks.

News That Matters

Confused why the blistering rally off the open following Draghi's uber-dovish commentary has completely faded? The following note from BMO's Mark Steele should explain it.

News That Matters

With Crude ramping, dragging stocks with it (as USDJPY is dead now) but not really gaining much ground, it was only a matter of time before the manipulators turned to their oldest-trick-in-the-book:

*NASDAQ, NYSE EXCHANGES DECLARE SELF-HELP AGAINST CBOE

VIX is gapping lower... Mission Accomplished

News That Matters

Call it the rigor mortis of the robo-machines. About 430 days ago the S&P 500 crossed the 1973 mark for the first time - the same point where it settled today. In between there has been endless reflexive thrashing in the trading range highlighted below. As is evident, the stock averages have not “climbed” the proverbial wall of worry; they have jerked and twitched to a series of short-lived new highs, which have now been abandoned. Surely most thinking investors have left the casino by now. So what remains is chart driven trading programs, racing madly up, then down, then back up again - rinsing and repeating with ever more furious intensity.

• Charting the Market: New Month, Same China (BBG)
• China jitters send stocks tumbling (Reuters)
• Oil falls on weak China factory data (Reuters)
• Euro zone factory growth eases in August despite modest price rises (Reuters)
• Euro-Area Joblessness Falls to Lowest Level Since Early 2012 (BBG)
• Clinton friend advised on U.S. politics, foreign policy (Reuters)
• Korea exports slump as Asia's woes deepen (Reuters)

Gold rose 3.5% in August as stocks globally saw sharp falls on growing concerns about the Chinese and the global economy.