Oil continued to trade lower today, driving energy stocks lower (makes sense) and carrying the broad market indexes lower as well (makes no sense). I have never seen so much hand wringing on behalf of lower oil prices. All the years I worked for a large oil company, all I heard were complaints when we made money and cheers when oil prices dropped and we posted losses.

SPX lost $17 to close at $2028, but RUT only dropped $6, closing at $1180. RUT bounced off its 50 dma at $1178, while SPX opened at its 50 dma and continued lower. Trading volume popped up a bit with 2.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today, slightly above the 50 dma at 2.05 billion shares. Trading volume on the NYSE rose 3% and volume increased 10% on NASDAQ.

Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings season positively, beating estimates and resulting in analyst upgrades. Perhaps a few good earnings announcements will distract all of this negativity around lower oil prices - did we like $4 gasoline?

We are looking at a week full of economic reports as well as continued earnings announcements. The Fed's Beige Book and retail sales are released Wednesday. Unemployment claims, the New York and Philadelphia Fed surveys, and the PPI all report on Thursday. Friday brings the CPI,industrial production, capacity utilization, and the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey.

In the meantime, I will be watching support on SPX in the neighborhood of $2000 to see if the market stabilizes.