THE CLOSE

Markets sold off in the afternoon on the heels of news out of GM that the mortgage market may impact auto sales. To quote Lutz, "mortgage industry meltdown" has reduced affordability of U.S. auto buyer.

Strong sectors included oils, biotech, reits, utilities and brokers while airlines, xchanges, drugs, homies and gaming brought up the rear.

Market internals generally flattish with the NYSE a bit better than the NAZ while the NDX had better internals than both the OEX/SPX.

Winners included JOYG MEDI BIIB WFMI AKAM PCAR JNPR AAPL MICC ROK WMB ATI GS and F.

Losers- COF XRX GM PFE S CSCO WMT BNI ABT SIRI MRVL UAUA XMSR IACI TEVA and BEAS.

Volatility indexes closed up about 6% and now trade about 5% above their respective SMA's. It is surprising to see them so high relative to the SMA in light of the recent strong performance of the markets. The 2 day RSI's on the SPX/DJIA stands near the 70 level so apparently not a particularly good time to buy yet. I suspect a sell off into midweek but markets are strong as demand for equities trumps all other indicators.

VLO back up near 70 and up almost 35% on the year and NYX, Cramer's favorite growth stock down about 6.6% on the day and red about 12% on the year. Haven't followed Cramer lately so don't know if he pulled the plug or its a "never mind." Its also a good thing that CNBC never discusses his Mad Money performance.