I was listening to Financial News Hour and was shocked to hear the following YTD declines, not measuring from the highs earlier this year.

DJIA40%

SPX46%

NAS48%

These numbers would have been a lot worse had the market not rallied over 5% today. Brutal. These markets are falling faster than they ever have in history.

Overseas:

Nikkei 48%

Hang Sang48%

Brazil50%

Europe 48%

Commodities:

Gold -4.5%

Oil-51%

They also gave 5 things to look for in a market bottom.

  1. Look for the media to focus on something other than armageddon.
  2. High volatility changing to lower volatility. A drop in the Vix back to a more normal range.
  3. Ted spread to begin acting more normal.
  4. Watch financial/brokerage stocks (BKX) to turn around.
  5. Watch Japanese Yen/US Dollar for signs of weakness.

Nothing really new under the sun here, just thought it would be nice to recap some of the stories for anybody who didn’t get a chance to listen to the Financial News Hour.