Market Wrap (recording & summary)

Well, that was certainly historic. The Dow down 1177 points, S&Ps down 113 points. Not a first for a 24-hour period, but a first for a single session. The 24-hour period is still ticking, and overnight action will encounter global exchanges opening. All of which were closed during the majority and meat of Monday’s drop.

Monday’s sellers gained traction by exiting the bias environment under the noon hour’s low and entering the final hour lower. The 3:10-3:20 proxy window corrected, but wasn’t likely to recover a relevant level. Its bounce only refueled sellers for a final collapse to fresh lows.

While the size of Monday’s plunge is fascinating, it’s not unusual for a Friday-Monday sequence. And it behaved appropriately after the pre-open and post-open optimism of avoiding the overnight low’s retest. Even the velocity of suffering the consequences is normal.

What is unusual — highly unusual — is to have closed under the plateau at December’s highs on their first probe. That’s a lot of conforming selling pressure so late in the decline. It’s like a figure skater saving her quad jumps for the end of her program.

Extending down to a low mid-morning Tuesday would also be normal for this otherwise abnormal environment. Closing back above the plateau would have greeted that extra selling from a position of strength. Greeting the open from an overnight bounce would be unlikely to avoid resuming the decline.

• Details and other markets coverage are discussed in the post-market Wrap recording here.
• Monitor overnight Globex trading in the chaRTroom here.