So We Get The Options Week Bad Day Today

Although we were holding near the unchanged mark for the entire morning, reports that GE had its credit outlook downgraded to Negative from Stable by Standard & Poor’s pushed the market to fresh intraday lows as the afternoon got under way. The bulls were unable to gain a foothold, and the major indices steadily lost ground for the remainder of the day, finishing the day with losses, on average, of 2.11%.

The so-called defensive areas, staples, healthcare and utilities, were the only sectors to finish in the green, while energy showed the biggest loss on the day as oil continued to fall off a cliff. Meanwhile, the recent momentum groups, including steels, solars, precious metals and shippers pulled back sharply as traders took some recent gains.

Unfortunately, each of the averages are back under their respective 50 day moving averages, but are still above the closing lows from the 15th. We’ll see if the dip buyers will step up to the plate again as we finish out the week tomorrow.