Rough day in the markets

Wow! That was an exciting, but stomach churning day in the markets. The Dow was way down, 358 points. Oil soared to a new high over $140 a barrel. The Euro hit a record against the yen. The TED spread is rising. Did I miss anything? Oh, yeah: gold was up a massive 3.7% to $915 an ounce.

It’s not like we weren’t all forewarned last week that market volatility was high and anything could happen. RBS was even warning of an Armageddon scenario. See my post Market risk is high for more on those warnings. I thought this is the kind of sell-off that would happen earlier in the week. However, it happened today and that spells trouble because Friday is the only day that stands between us and two days of traders twiddling their thumbs, wondering what to do about their market exposure.

Let’s hope tomorrow is a bit easier. If not, Monday will be a nail biter to be sure. Stay tuned.