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So much for yesterday's strength in the stock market. Today the market was as jittery as ever as continued negative news from the financial sector made investors run for the exits. The Dow finished the day down 277 points. The Nasdaq lost 61. The broadest measure of the indices, the S&P 500, fell by 35 points.

Weakness was abundant in all areas, but the basic materials, tech, and financial sectors led the way to the downside.

Energy stocks were very weak today as crude oil prices dipped under $92 a barrel. In recent days, energy traders have become concerned about oil because of the poor state of the overall economy. Some of the energy traders believe that oil's bull run is slowing down significantly. PetroChina (NYSE:PTR) lost 8.49% today on double its normal volume. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) fell by 3.33% on the day. Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) plunged 6.91% on double its average daily volume. National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) lost 5.9% and Weatherford International (NYSE:WFT) fell 5.52% on the day.

Technology stocks had a very rough day today. Research in Motion Limited (Nasdaq:RIMM) lost 5.63%, continuing a recent stretch of very poor performance. Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) fell 5.45% as investors were unimpressed by today's Macworld presentation. Garmin (Nasdaq:GRMN), which has been absolutely crushed of late, plunged another 6.24% today. Chinese internet powerhouse Baidu.com (Nasdaq:BIDU) shares lost 6.52% today. The weakest area inside tech though were the solar stocks. Sunpower Corporation (Nasdaq:SPWR) lost a staggering 11.29% today. MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:WFR) fell 8.81% and First Solar (Nasdaq:FSLR) lost 8.89%.

The financial sector was hit hard yet again today. Brokers were weak as Lehman (NYSE:LEH) fell 5.9% and Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) 5.17% on the day. The Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), which has actually been very strong of late, was weak today, losing 4.52%. Exchanges shares were weak today as well as NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) lost 5.45% and IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) fell 5.31%.

Notable 52 week lows

• eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) EBAY shares fell 4.38% after it was reported that Amazon.com topped eBay for the first time in visits.
• Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) This once proud company has fallen into disarray and today the stock lost another 16.72%.
• LSI Logic (NYSE:LSI) Another stock that was once hot that has become a penny stock. LSI lost 6.05% today.
• Boeing (NYSE:BA) Rumors of possible further delays in the Dreamliner sank this stock to a new 52 week low today.
• Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) This franchise has hit its first difficult period in quite some time. It edged lower by 0.93% today.
• Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) The gaming stocks have really hit the skids of late. BYD fell another 3.73% today.

The pathetic number of new highs today on the Nasdaq (18) and the NYSE (14) tells you all you need to know about the market right now. The bears clearly are in control and the uncertainty around the economy has spooked investors in a large way. As has been the case of late, the volume today was heavier on the downside than it was yesterday on the upside day.

The retail sales data that came in this morning showed that retail sales fell 0.4% in December. This was weaker than expected and certainly did nothing to help the overall tone of the market and the general worries about the economy.

Don't fight the tape or try to catch a falling knife right here. I think now is a good time to be on the sidelines watching rather than committing new capital. The time to commit capital may be sooner than most think, but allow this to play out first.

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