HAK, looks like a possible stall for the stock market according to this article.
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Stocks plunge on fears about China and growth By Ellis Mnyandu
1 hour, 7 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Tuesday, pushing the benchmark S&P 500 index down in its biggest one-day drop in almost four years, as a sharp sell-off in China's stock market and weak U.S. data fanned concerns about global economic growth.
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With an hour left to trade, the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 500 points as investors pummeled stocks with the biggest exposure to Chinese demand, including Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT - news), whose shares slid 3.6 percent.
But by the close, the Dow had cut some of that loss. Traders said the late-hour slide may have been triggered by program trades heading toward the close. Tuesday's sell-off wiped out the year's gains for all three major U.S. stock indexes.
"There seems to be just an air of nothing is safe anymore, there's nowhere to go and people are rotating into bonds as a safe haven," said Andre Bakhos, president of Princeton Financial Group in Princeton, New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) slid 416.02 points, or 3.29 percent, to 12,216.24. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) was down 50.33 points, or 3.47 percent, at 1,399.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) was down 96.65 points, or 3.86 percent, at 2,407.87.
For the year to date, the Dow was down about 2 percent, while the S&P 500 was down about 1.36 percent and the Nasdaq was down about 0.31 percent.
On Tuesday, the die for the trading day was cast when China's Shanghai Composite Index (^SSEC - news) dropped almost 9 percent on fears that the government would crack down on speculation that has driven stock prices there to record highs.
Before Wall Street's opening bell, there was more bad news. A government report showed a much bigger-than-expected drop of 7.8 percent in January's new orders for U.S.-made durable goods, which added to concerns about a slowdown in economic growth. Durable goods are big-ticket items, including home appliances and computers, intended to last three years or more.
In one sign of how shaken investors were, the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX - news), known as Wall Street's "fear gauge," surged 70.5 percent to a session high at 19.01 and then retraced its steps a bit to end at 18.31, a gain of 64.2 percent.
At one point, the Dow fell as much as 546.20 points, or 4.32 percent, to a session low at 12,086.06.
Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's, said the stock market's tumble wiped out more than $430 billion in the S&P 500 stock values, narrowly matching the value of share buybacks by S&P 500 companies last year.
All 30 stocks in the blue-chip Dow average finished in the red as investors dumped shares of companies with big exposure to the Chinese economy.
During the session, all three major U.S. stock indexes broke below their 60-day moving averages -- a sign that the momentum that has carried U.S. stocks through a record run higher from July has begun to stall.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM - news) was the biggest decliner in both the Dow and the S&P 500, with its stock falling 4.7 percent, or $3.57, to $71.83 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N), the U.S. heavy equipment maker that does extensive business in China, dropped 3.6 percent, or $2.43, to $64.83, also on the NYSE.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's semiconductor index (^SOXX - news) ended down 3.1 percent, its second sharpest one-day slide this year.
Shares of technology bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) dropped 5.6 percent, or $1.53, to $25.71. The stock was among the biggest losers in both the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX - news) and the S&P 500.
Volume was heavy on the NYSE, where about 2.41 billion shares changed hands, well above last year's estimated daily average of 1.84 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 3.02 billion shares traded, sharply exceeding last year's daily average of 2.02 billion.
The market's breadth was overwhelmingly negative, with more than six stocks falling for every stock that rose on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, more than 10 stocks slid for every one that gained.
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