Ka-Boom, Stocks Crash, Key Support Levels Shattered; NASDAQ Enters Correction

Stocks turned in an ugly performance on Wednesday, unfortunately, it wasn't even as bad as the declines of just two weeks ago, on October 10. Apparently, traders don't like buying stocks on Wednesdays. Either that, or they like selling them on Wednesdays.

In any case the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 2,250 points in the last three weeks, the NASDAQ posted it's third-worst single day point drop in history and the S&P 500 has closed lower 13 of the last 15 sessions and the last six straight.

For the NASDAQ, the 329-point loss today eclipsed the 315 points shed on October 10. Four of the six, and five of the ten biggest single day point losses on the NASDAQ have occurred this year.

All of this is happening in the face of solid economic data, record low unemployment and moderate inflation. It's also happening in the middle of third quarter earnings reporting season, a time that many analysts had predicted would be challenging, which, at this point, seems an understatement.

The carnage today on Wall Street was unconfined and accelerated into the close, as opposed to yesterday's miracle rally off fresh lows. Well, today's bottoms were deeper and more pronounced than the levels breached on Tuesday, and they are signaling that this is only the beginning of a deeper dive, as the major indices are reaching or already have exceeded a correction of 10 percent.

At today's closing bell, the S&P 500 is down 9.2% from its October 3 all-time high. The NASDAQ is now down 12.4% from the August 29 all-time high of 8109.69. The Dow, which peaked on October 3rd at 26,828.39 is down 8.4%. The NYSE Composite is down 9.6%.

The Dow Jones Transportation Index, which was already off more than 10 percent, lost another 330 points today and is down 14.4% from its all-time high of 11,570.84 from September 14.

All of the majors have breached their 200-day moving averages, indicating that these losses are not technical, but more of a fundamental nature. Earnings reports thus far have been moderate, though there have been some notable misses, and more than a handful of companies have warned that the next few quarters may not meet expectations. That is exactly the kind of talk that scares bulls into hiding and encourages the bears, who have now taken control of market dynamics.

This is how record-long bull markets end, at the culmination of monstrous credit creation, with loud thuds and days and days of interminable, deep losses.

Dow Jones Industrial Average October Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
10/1/18	26,651.21	+192.90	+192.90
10/2/18	26,773.94	+122.73	+315.63
10/3/18	26,828.39	+54.45	+370.08
10/4/18	26,627.48	-200.91	+169.17
10/5/18	26,447.05	-180.43	-11.26
10/8/18	26,486.78	+39.73	+28.47
10/9/18	26,430.57	-56.21	-27.74
10/10/18	25,598.74	-831.83	-859.57
10/11/18	25,052.83	-545.91	-1,405.48
10/12/18	25,339.99	+287.16	-1,118.32
10/15/18	25,250.55	-89.44	-1,207.76
10/16/18	25,798.42	+547.87	-659.89
10/17/18	25,706.68	-91.74	-751.63
10/18/18	25,379.45	-327.23	-1,078.86
10/19/18	25,444.34	+64.89	-1,013.97
10/22/18	25,317.41	-126.93	-1,140.90
10/23/18	25,191.43	-125.98	-1,265.88
10/24/18	24,583.42	-608.01	-1,873.89

At the Close, Wednesday, October 24, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,583.42, -608.01 (-2.41%)
NASDAQ: 7,108.40, -329.14 (-4.43%)
S&P 500: 2,656.10, -84.59 (-3.09%)
NYSE Composite: 11,971.91, -315.53 (-2.57%)