Here Are 8 Things Traders Are Saying About Today’s Huge Sell-Off

MYLES UDLAND

SEP. 26, 2014

REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Stocks are lower, and traders think some or all of these things could be why.

Stocks are selling off.

At the halfway point of Thursday’s US trading session, the Dow was down 220 points, the S&P 500 was down 26 points, and the Nasdaq was down 75 points. At a loss of 1.6%, the Nasdaq was logging the largest percentage losses. The small-cap Russell 2000 index was also lower, falling 16 points, or 1.4%. 

Apple is among the big losers on Thursday, with shares of the iPhone maker down almost 3%.

Dave Lutz of JonesTrading just circulated an email giving a quick overview of some things traders are looking at, writing that it seems like a “perfect storm of headlines — most them ‘well known’ — but the Holiday conditions accelerating fears.”

Via Lutz, here are eight things that traders are watching during Thursday’s big sell-off:

1. The S&P 500 broke below its 50-day moving average, and there is chatter about a large “institutional player” exiting positions in nearly 200 different stocks.
2. Growth concerns are taking copper, silver, oil, and bond yields lower.
3. There is “major hedging” in futures contracts due after a large broker was sold a block of HYG, the ETF that tracks high-yield bonds. 
4. “Chatter of a big fixed income sell program.”
5. The Yen is climbing due to concerns over Japan’s Government Investment Pension Fund.
6. Rumors that a hedge fund is in trouble, with media companies SFX Entertainment, Media General, Nexstar Broadcasting, and Gray Television falling.
7. Terror concerns.
8. A breakdown in commodities.

So there’s that.