We head into the second half of the session with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) down over 200 points and sitting near its worst levels of the session. This leaves the DJIA, and the other broad market indices, dancing around their October lows.

A look to the sector action shows selling pressure is fairly widespread. Bonds are the only gainer. Gold, oil, and Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI) are showing small losses. The rest of the pack is down at least 2% with the Broker/Dealer Index (XBD) the weakest area.

Chart Courtesy of Thomson Financial

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After the close last night, Brent offered some comments related to my closing post -

"Nick, As you mentioned, today was very odd in how mixed the action was. Do you think this might be an issue of people realizing the market is sitting around support and people feel a need to buy and they don't quite know what to buy so they buy what they know - the big boys? This was clearly not broad based demand. Makes me feel that the market is still quite vulnerable here."

That seems like a very logic explanation. I would also add that the weighting/composition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) makes it the easiest to sway. Based on the component list, it looks like the top five stocks (IBM, XOM, CVX, PG, AND MMM) account for a third of the weighting. The Oil & Gas Index (XOI) was one of the strongest groups yesterday so there is some influence there. As far as the support, I do believe it is being widely watched. The October lows are a fairly obvious level and the immediate buying we saw last Thursday seems to support that belief.