Opinion: The Monday Noon Stocks Report – "Let the Better Beware" Part 3

So, the market tumbled at the open, down around 12%, or 2798 points (!!!) which triggered the 7% circuit breaker. The fifteen minutes that the Level One rest bought us let the markets and the participants settle a bit, and after the reopen there appeared to be a bit of a sense of calm pervading trading. The market recovered over 1,000 points but was still down over 8%, with the Russell 2000 Index of small cap companies down the most, over 8.5% at 11:45 a.m.

The circuit breakers worked pretty much exactly how they were planned to, because we were oh so close to the 13% Level Two circuit breaker to be triggered, but after the reopen traders pushed the market higher. Yet, 28 out of the 30 Dow stocks were lower, some precipitously so, and the only stocks that were higher were Caterpillar and Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Still, it’s a long day, and unless we see a full cataclysmic drop of 20% in trading, we still have four more hours to go until we can lick our wounds for another day.

(Aside from being a nationally-ranked Juniors Tennis Player, Wharton School graduate Neal Abrams was a licensed investment advisor for more than 35 years. With Nadal, Djokovic, Serena and Coco on COVID-19 hiatus, he's going to look at the markets instead of the rackets).