First let me announce that the "Rebel Forum" is now "on the air". More on that at the end of tonight’s wrap up.
10am: Market started to sell off
12:15pm: Market began to rally
3:15pm: Someone pulled the plug and the market sold off and closed at the low of the day
So what happened? Same as every day lately… lack of confidence. Traders are still well aware of the growing stresses in the financial system and there is little desire to keep money in the market. Only a strong bear market rally will traders be willing to keep their chips on the table.
The economy is still in a downward spiral and the projections of what is yet to come are not good. This mornings government report on retail sales revealed a dramatic drop, the largest one month decline in history. The prognosis for the Q4 US GDP is falling apart rapidly. I would not be surprised to see a Q4 GDP print of -4.
There is some news today that Costco (COST) has asked customers who receive rebate checks for purchases not to deposit the check.
This communication contains important information regarding the redemption of Costco Mail-in Rebate checks dated prior to November 13, 2008.
Due to a significant business disruption at the company that processes Costco Wholesale’s Mail-in Rebates, no rebate checks dated prior to November 13, 2008, should be deposited into your bank account. These checks should be redeemed at your local Costco warehouse.
Mail-in rebate checks dated after November 13, 2008, are not affected by this business disruption and may be deposited or cashed at your bank, or redeemed at any Costco warehouse.
Wow… even rebate checks are not safe anymore. Also this today…
Continental Promotions Group, a rebate processing company, filed for bankruptcy protection today, with an estimated $10M rebates outstanding.
I have no idea if this is the company that Costco was using, but $10 Million in unpaid rebates is going to make a lot of customers very angry.
Insurers want to apply for ‘Savings and Loan’ status. What? Since when is an insurer a savings and loan. If they move forward with becoming classified as a saving and loan institution it would allow them to dip into the tax payers wallets for funding. See the Bloomberg article HERE.
Talk continues to escalate about what to do with the automakers. General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Chrysler are all at the brink of collapse. They are lobbying Washington aggressively for emergency funding. Long time readers here know my position on this subject so I’ll spare you my rant tonight 
I foresee the automakers remaining in ‘critical condition’ even if government funding is provided. I predict that at least one of the major automakers will end up in bankruptcy in the future with or without a government bail out.
Citigroup (C) is to hold an employee town hall meeting on Monday morning. It is expected Citigroup will announce another round of layoffs. The talk on the floor of the exchange has the layoffs being somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 employees.
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Tonight I have flipped the switch on the ‘Rebel Forum’. I wanted to find a way for the many readers of ‘RebelTraders’ to be able to be more involved in discussing the markets, looking over charts, present your own ideas, and view my charts in a format that provides much easier access and organization.
From this point forward the charts that I normally would include here on the RebelTraders site will now be in the ‘Rebel Forum’. But don’t worry… they can be viewed just as easily, everyone will still be able to view the charts. By placing them in the forum they will be kept in chronological order, always available without having to search through previous posts here on this site, and will also be higher quality as I will be able to make larger files available for you to download and view.
RebelTraders began on May 17th 2007. Since that time our readership has grown dramatically. We were among the first to warn of the coming bear market back in September 2007.
Many emails have been received since RebelTraders was born. Many have been personal thank you’s for providing a fresh and honest analysis of the markets and economy.
I take extreme pride in providing stock market commentary and analysis in a fashion that separates RebelTraders from many of other stock market web sites. That is why RebelTraders was born…
Rebel…
Someone who exhibits great independence in thought and action…
That is what we are all about. And now with the addition of the ‘Rebel Forum’ you can be a contributing part of the RebelTraders community.
The forum is for like minded people who want a place to interact that is free of the junk that is so prevalent in other public forums. I welcome all ‘RebelTraders’ readers to signup on the forum (It is FREE) and have your own place to discuss the markets in an environment that will be different than the rest.
The forum will evolve and grow over time. Just like this web site has evolved and grown over time, so to will the forum. It is my intention to make the forum the best place to discuss the markets…
Signup now and be among the first to start topics and make the forum a success.
Now for tonight’s charts…
S&P 500 Index and E-Mini Futures
Reminder: Rebeltraders will be on holiday next week. Regular commentary and analysis will resume on November 23rd
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