Market wrap: disappointing retail sales and profit-taking on banks sparked a sell-off on Wall Street overnight. The major US indexes lost 1.7 - 2% as financial stocks fell sharply after weeks of strong gains. The S&P Bank Index surrendered more than 8%. Also significantly weaker were REITs (-8.5%) and insurance (-5.5%).
Oil lost 1.3% to $49.41 in another night of choppy trading. Gold was little changed, losing less than 1% to recently trade at $889.20. Base metals were mixed but continuing to recover. Nickel broke to its highest level since February and zinc is back to October 2008 levels.
Futures traders expect our market to give back 37 points at the open after yesterday's powerful surge. The SPI closed at 3727.
Platinum has been rallying alongside the other metals since November and I added NKP on breakout yesterday, after a tip on this thread (thank you Iridium). Platinum lost some ground last night but the trend remains strongly up. I'm also holding NDO and looking for a retest of the old high.
