Hard to believe this was a surprise. This is what happens when you take 800,000 American families out of the market by refusing to pay their salaries. I wouldn't be surprised to see a rally through the day that retraces the entire sell off and ends the day at new rally highs. At the same time, it is only 8:50 AM EST so no telling where this goes. 2742.25 first bullish line in the sand, imo 2721.75 down to 2712 or so next level down, imo
Sorry, I'm not really a fundamentals guys, just a technical day trader to be honest. But my understanding is now that these numbers were December retail sales? So December - the Christmas month, sales were down 1.2% year over year ( I presume year over year). So then January could be even worse, as these numbers most likely do not reflect a pullback i n spending by those who were forced to pull back their spending during January. I might be wrong, like I said - I'm am not a fundamentals guy and I wouldn't even have know that the reaction was to poor retail sales if not for the post above mine.