THE CLOSE

Markets close lower but well off their lows and their highs. The DJIA closed -80, NAZ -7 and SPX -8. The RUT/MID's underperformed and the NDX was down a point on the heels of green numbers from GOOG AAPL AMZN NVDA BRCM CSCO and AMGN. How bad can the markets be if those stocks were green? And with all of CNBC's cheer leading and bullishness, I don't think they mentioned once how relatively well the NDX acted today. I guess those stocks are immune to higher rates. As I type the NQ futures are unchanged for the day while the DJIA closed down 80.

Strongest sectors included gaming, silver, tech, airlines and biotech while real estate, utilities, homies, retail, small cap value and brokers acted worst.

Big winners included TLVT GES SYNL ARGN BIDU EK BUD DOWN CSC BDK and JOYG while BBBY FLEX WFMI EBAY HD S DD ETR AKH SNHY MTOX CLRK and FCSX brought up the rear.

Market internals were lousy all day and closed with a net of 1,600 losers on the NYSE and 860 net red on the NAZ.

The NDX closed with 3 down to every 2 up while the OEX was 4 down to every 1 up.

Volatility indexes closed up about 3% and trade at about 3% above their 10 day SMA's.

Stocks/ETF's that may be worth a shot here with low 2 day RSI's include DIA -22, C -5, COST -1, PPH 7, MRK 0, JOE 3, HIG-2, TWX-5, BBBY-1;

I suspect that the sell off was more due to over bought market conditions than fear of rates going through the roof. Rates seem to be running into resistance here and keep in mind that in June of 2006 the rate on the 10 year went to the 5.25% level.