Market Falls on Higher Volume

On Thursday, the market opened slightly down and fell quickly in the morning session. After finding support over the noon hour, the market gradually moved to the upside, but it was not enough to retake much of the day's losses. Today was a broad sell off, although not severe.

The Nasdaq lost -31 points (-0.76%) and the S&P fell -17 points (-0.94%). The Dow declined -167 points. The Russell 2000 was off by -7 (-0.65%). 

Today's decline occurred on significantly increased volume and range expansion. This means the it was a day of institutional selling. The decliners out paced advancers by a ratio of 7-to-3. Down volume had an even bigger edge over up volume with a 9-to-2 ratio. Market breadth was never positive on the day; it hit a high of -555, a low of -1,747, and closed at -1,212.