It was yet another day of selling on the street today, with financials once again leading the way lower. Early this morning Citigroup announced it would have to write off up to an additional $11 billion, and the fallout was large in the financial space. The market opened lower, then sold off substantially in the early afternoon, but rebounded some of its ground into the close. The Dow finished lower by 52 
points. The Nasdaq closed off by 15 points. The S&P 500 by 7.48 points, or 0.5%.
Numerous major financials hit another 52 week low today as the selling just will not stop in that group. Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) fell another 2.65% on the day, while E*Trade Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:ETFC) lost another 3.07%. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) lost 5.62% as the investment banking group was very weak today. Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) shares fell by 4.07% on heavy volume today.
The basic materials were also particularly weak today, with some of those companies that have been so strong recently losing some ground. BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE:BHP) shares fell 4.96% today on fairly heavy volume. Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:PCU) dropped 5.72% today on double its normal daily volume. Freeport McMoran (NYSE:FCX) lost 2.33% as mining companies showed significant weakness on the day.
The Chinese stocks, which have been so strong in the past few months sold off hard today. CNOOC Limited (NYSE:CEO) shares fell by 8.79% and PetroChina Company (NYSE:PTR) lost 12.92% as the Chinese oil plays lost ground across the board. Sohu.com Inc. (Nasdaq:SOHU) lost 2.95% in the Chinese internet group. One lone standout continued to be Baidu.com Inc. (Nasdaq:BIDU), which hit another new high today, rising 1.93% on strong volume again.
The volume on the major exchanges were fairly strong, but not huge today. The NYSE traded about 1.53 billion shares today while the Nasdaq finished around 2.15 billion shares. The internals of the market show a much more negative picture than the top line numbers do from today's trading. On the NYSE decliners led advancers by about 3 to 1 and on the Nasdaq they did the same by about 2 to 1. On both the NYSE and the Nasdaq the margin of new 52 week lows outpaced new highs by about 4 to 1.
The financials will likely continue to be on the front burner with investors waiting for another shoe to drop.
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