It's becoming a foregone conclusion that the market will fall nearly every day of late. The sentiment on the street has worsened considerably since last week's FOMC meeting that disappointed investors. Today was no different as stocks sold off, ending at the worst levels of the day. The Dow fell by 173 points today. The broad S&P 500 lost 22 points, or 1.5%. The Nasdaq was the biggest loser today, falling 61 points, or 2.32%. 
Because of the weakness in the Nasdaq it should surprise no one that the technology sector led the way lower today. Big name tech stocks that had recently been a safe haven for investors were crushed today. Baidu.com Inc. (Nasdaq:BIDU), which is always a very volatile name, saw its share price slashed by 9.39% today. VMWare (NYSE:VMW) plunged 6.11%, though it was on very light volume. Sunpower Corporation (Nasdaq:SPWR) and Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq:ESLR) were both hit hard today, falling 5.23% and 9.57% respectively as part of a very weak solar group. Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) shares fell 3.51% on the day.
The capital goods sector also saw several different groups that had been strong of late get crushed today. Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) shares plunged on very heavy volume after the company cut its fourth quarter production. Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR) fell 11.35% on a stunning 9 times its normal volume after agreeing to buy Trane Inc. (NYSE:TT). The infrastructure group, which has been extremely hot of late, was hit hard today. Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE:JEC) lost 5.42%. Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) plunged by 5.83% today. Deere and Company (NYSE:DE) saw its shares lose 3.32% on the day.
In the basic material sector, most of the large caps were quite weak today, but there were a couple exceptions. BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) lost 4.62% today. Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) fell 3.17%, but its agribusiness competitor Bunge (NYSE:BG) gained 2.67% today. US Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) lost 4.08% as steel stocks were weak today.
Notable new 52 week lows
- Capital One (NYSE:COF) This stock has been a face of the mortgage collapse and it fell another 3.26% today.
- Marvell Technology (Nasdaq:MRVL) Fell another 0.83% today. This stock has had a massive fall from grace since this time a couple years ago.
- Micron Technology (NYSE:MU) The stock lost 5.73% today and is down almost 90% in the last five months.
- Starwood Hotels (NYSE:HOT) Lost 1.52% today on very heavy volume.
The volume today was on the light side, and it remains to be seen if it will ever get very strong again this year. With Christmas coming a week from tommorrow it is rather likely that this week will see no more than moderate volume figures, and next week will certainly see very light volume figures.
The weakness of the stock market of late is seen very well in the new highs vs. new lows picture. On the NYSE today the new highs were 28 and new lows were a stunning 388. The Nasdaq saw 88% of its volume today traded to the downside.
There is no way to paint this picture in positive way for the bulls right now with consistent finishes of the day at the lows and very little in the way of buying the dips evident in the market. The economic data should be watched closely in coming weeks, because if we can avoid a recession then there will be lots of values in this market.
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