Oopsie, Daisy, We Almost Did It Again

US equity markets opened in an ugly mood today. Gapping lower at the open the Dow quickly sold off over 200 points but quickly recovered all except 50 points, all in the first half hour of trading. The other indices followed roughly the same pattern.

From there, the markets dawdled just below the even line for most of the day, briefly going positive in late afternoon before selling off into the close.

All told, it wasn't very pretty.

This is a market that wants to sell off, knows it is going to sell off and will sell off. There's no impetus for further upside movement and jittery brokers know it. Volumes showed a heavy bias on the negative again today. New lows are beginning to proliferate; 176 today, topping out new highs by a slight margin.

Dow 12,234.34 Down 34.29; NASDAQ 2,404.21 Down 11.94; S&P 500 1,403.17 Down 3.65

Oil persisted in reflecting unreal expectations for future demand, tacking on another quarter to even out at $62.00 per barrel. The price is pure fantasy on the part of futures traders and is in now way reflective of actual supply-demand dynamics. The price of oil - and refined, of gas - is pure fiction, built on greed and monopolist politics. It's a surfeit of corporate and international culture that is out of control and continues to plague markets as the single most dangerous threat to stabilized markets in the world.

The oil gambit is doomed to failure, however, as are all frauds and schemes. Eventually, markets will adjust to what they consider unfair arrangements and move to alternatives. And alternatives are emerging at a more rapid pace than the oil organizers care to admit.

Gold took a beating again, and today, silver followed dutifully along, though silver's loss was less than half in magnitude to gold's injury of -7.40. The metals, like everything else, looks stuck, waiting for the other shoe to drop

...which could happen at any time.