The major indices opened lower today, and the selloff just got steeper as the day went along. By the end of the day stocks had suffered major losses across the board. The Dow fell 280 points, the Nasdaq tumbled almost 61 points, and the S&P 500 fell more than 34 points. The indices all lost over 2% on the day. 
There was no place to hide today as every major sector fell at least 1.5%. Basic materials fell by 3.42%, Capital Goods by 3.26%, Energy by 3.20%, and Financials by 3.01%.
A testament to the weakness of the already beaten down financial sector is that all 93 financial companies in the S&P 500 finished lower on the day. Investment banks led the group lower after Merrill Lynch and Company (NYSE:MER) reduced its recommendation on the shares of those companies. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEH) fell 6.01%, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) fell 4.64%, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) fell 3.93%. State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) shed 4.61% of its value after a London paper said the company faces high loan exposure.
Aerospace and Defense names fell today after a strong day yesterday. The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) fell 2.93%, while Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) plunged 4.51%. Transportation names such as CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) were also weak on the day falling 4.61% and 2.5% respectively.
Major technology names were far from immune to today's major selloff. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 4.08%, and Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) fell by 4.82%.
The day was started off on a negative note with the plunge in consumer confidence figures. Earlier today GrowYourFunds examined what might have been behind the drop in confidence among consumers. The poor confidence number combined with a terrible report on home prices was plenty of reason to sell this morning. As if the market needed more excuses to sell, the FOMC minutes from its August 7th meeting were released this afternoon. In the report the FOMC made it clear they were going to try to do everything they could to allow the market to right itself without Federal Funds rate changes. The report did say that policymakers needed to watch the credit situation carefully, but investors saw the minutes as an additional reason to sell stocks.
Today's news was very negative on the economy as whole, which is bound to affect the financial markets. The fact that volume was still fairly light overall is encouraging to bulls. The action of the past week has been very tenuous and there certainly is no major market direction established at this point. Negative economic news like today is likely to continue to be greeted with this kind of response in the market, while upside surprises in economic data will cause short-term surges in the market. The longer term outlook will likely not be established until after the FOMC Monetary Policy meeting in September. I am primarily on the sidelines for now, watching intently to the economic data. What moves are you making right now? Do you think now is the time to buy or sell stocks?
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