Stocks Continue Downward Spiral Second Straight Week

With stocks rallying on Friday, the disastrous second straight week of declines came to a relieving finish for equity longs, but not without significant teeth-gnashing through the tortuous five trading days.

The Dow and S&P 500 each entered correction territory on Thursday, as the blue chip index posted its second-largest single-day point decline. With the focus on the 10% down mark, Friday's gains may serve only as a temporary salve to many frayed nerves.

With the Dow Industrials still down nearly 2000 points in just the first seven trading days of February it's going to take quite an effort to regain all-time highs. The major indices peaked simultaneously in late January, but it's been all downhill since then, and the probable causes for such a shakeout are still in effect, if not even more exacerbated in the case of bond yields.

Globally, outflows from equity funds set a record, as investors pulled $30.6 billion out in the week through Wednesday, according to global fund tracker EPFR.

Breaking down those flows, the U.S. dominated with a record $33 billion in equity redemptions, while Europe saw $3.3 billion exit, the largest in 79 weeks. Japan saw the strongest equity inflows in 65 weeks at $2.4 billion, while $2.4 billion flowed into emerging markets, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Weekly declines in US markets were uniform, as the four major indices were all lower by at least five percent, led by the Dow, at 5.21%.

The 10-year-note closed out the week at 2.83%, a level seen promoting a massive shift from stocks to bonds and risk to relative safety. Crude oil slipped to its lowest level of the year, finishing off Friday at $59.05. Though not directly related to the equity selloff, crude prices have been elevated for the past two months until they were devastated by a massive increase in supply, reported this week.

Precious metals prices were muted, falling along with stocks, bonds and nearly every other asset class.

Trickling out from the corners of mouths were murmurings of getting long art, transportation, real estate and anything tangible.

Obviously, the correction is not over, having barely dipped a toe into the -10% water. It would not be unusual to see stocks bounce early next week and possibly beyond, though a retest of the prior lows is all but inevitable.

While caution had been thrown to the wind all of last year and through January of this year, consensus sentiment has changed dramatically and markets are likely to remain unstable until volatility subsides. That may not happen for some time, since the past nine years of bank-and-buyback-induced stock profits have been characterized by extremely low levels of volatility.

The past two weeks have been witness to a fundamental change in many regards. Extreme greed turned to a healthy level of fear in just a few days.

Rising rates and the prospect of profligate spending at the federal level point to further declines in the equity complex.

Dow Jones Industrial Average February Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
2/1/18	26,186.71	+37.32	+37.32
2/2/18	25,520.96	-665.75	-628.43
2/5/18	24,345.75	-1,175.21	-1,803.64
2/6/18	24,912.77	+567.02	-1,236.62
2/7/18	24,893.35	-19.42	-1,256.04
2/8/18	23,860.46	-1,032.89	-2288.93
2/9/18	24,190.90	+330.44	-1958.49

At the Close, Friday, February 9, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,190.90, +330.44 (+1.38%)
NASDAQ: 6,874.49, +97.33 (+1.44%)
S&P 500: 2,619.55, +38.55 (+1.49%)
NYSE Composite: 12,405.82, +135.17 (+1.10%)

For the Week:
Dow: -1330.06 (-5.21%)
NASDAQ: -366.46 (-5.06%)
S&P 500: -142.58 (-5.16%)
NYSE Composite: -679.53 (-5.19%)

What's in Your Wallet? Not Much, Says Capital One

I'm not sure, but probably more than 30% of all adult Americans have a Capital One credit card. I used to have two, before the company - kicking and screaming all the way - finally acceded to my demands to combine them into one.

While checking some financial sector stocks earlier today, I noticed that Capital One (COF) has taken a hellacious beating this year. Since closing at 31.05 on December 31, 2008, the stock has received a 67% haircut, down to 10.13. Capital One is the nation's largest purveyor of individual credit cards, but also dabbles in making new car loans, home equity loans and other, similarly risky endeavors.

The company is notably the subprime credit lender of nearly last resort to consumers who have tapped out their home equity and are now piling up credit card debt, typically at rates of 15% and higher, and now it appears that many are not paying back their lender, as Forbes reports:

The company also reported its annual net charge-off rate a measure of credit default, for U.S. credit cards rose to 7.82% in January from 7.71% in December.

Apparently, when it comes to paying their debt to Capital One, there really isn't much left in people's wallets, much to the displeasure of COF shareholders, as the company wiped out all of the year's gains in 2008 with a 4th quarter loss of $3.74 per share.

Much of Wall Street was sharing the pain with Capital One, as stocks took yet another drubbing, with the Dow falling to within a whisker of the November 20 low (7552.29), closing right at the lows of the day, 7552.60.

This sets the stage for an interesting remainder of the week, as today's close is undeniably a double bottom on the Dow. The other majors are close to their previous lows, but not quite there.

Dow 7,552.60, -297.81 (3.79%)
NASDAQ 1,470.66, -63.70 (4.15%)
S&P 500 789.17, -37.67 (4.56%)
NYSE Compos 4,939.12, -267.64 (5.14%)

The NASDAQ has another 154 points to go, the S&P would have to shed another 36 points and the NYSE Composite is still 288 above its November 20 close. Obviously, the bank and financial stocks of the Dow have weighed heavily of late.

Bank of America (BAC) crossed the $5 Rubicon again, closing at 4.90, down 67 cents. CitiGroup (C) continued down the rat hole, losing 43 cents, to 3.06. even venerable JP Morgan Chase (JPM) lost 3.04, to 21.65. Each of those company's shares were down by more than 12% on the session.

Market internals verified just how rough a day it was for US stocks. Declining issues absolutely slammed advancers, 5803-775. New lows expanded to 555, versus a paltry 18 new highs. Volume was outstanding, signaling more selling dead ahead. Only one issue of the Dow 30 closed with a gain: Wal-Mart (WMT). For more on that, see below.

NYSE Volume 1,590,783,000
NASDAQ Volume 2,395,914,000

Commodities were split down the middle. Anything consumable, from unleaded gas to pork bellies, was down, while the precious metals shot to short term highs. Crude oil for March delivery were down $2.58, to $34.93; natural gas was off 22 cents, to $4.22, and wholesale unleaded gas closed at $1.11, begging the question as to how most consumers are paying roughly $2.00 at the pump. Look for another record quarter for the oil companies.

Gold gained $25.30, to $967.50. Silver broke 39 cents higher, to $14.01. With deflation clearly the issue, one has to wonder how far the bulls will push the metals. They are, after all, investment hedges - primarily against inflation - but commodities at heart.

Investors find themselves at a critical crossroad at the open tomorrow. Considering that only the Dow has retraced its low, it should be a pretty safe bet that all indices are heading lower in the short term.

Want to know why Wal-Mart was the only Dow component to show a gain on the day? Watch the video below: