Maybe it was the dollar rising earlier, maybe it was poor housing data from a drop in new home sales. Maybe they wanted more than a marginally positive durable goods reading. Maybe it was that oil inventory is back up. And then there is the notion that stocks have just gotten too far ahead of themselves and there were reports of a large strategist cutting GDP targets. But investors sold religiously today ahead of tomorrow's GDP figure.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 9,762.69 -119.48 (-1.21%)
S&P 500 1,042.63 -20.78 (-1.95%)
Nasdaq 2,059.61 -56.48 (-2.67%)

Top 10 Analyst Calls
Top Day Trader Alerts

Despite a cautious report from home builders and despite a low volume day, today marked a clear win for the S&P 5000 and for the DJIA. The S&P broke through 1,100 and the DJIA broke through 11,000. We also had two mergers this morning, and while small they are signs that companies are willing to merge once more.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 10,090.76 +94.85 (0.95%)
S&P 500 1,097.52 +9.84 (0.90%)
Nasdaq 2,175.83 +19.03 (0.88%)

Top 10 Analyst Calls
Top Day Trader Alerts
Top Stock Rumors

34 banks opted not to pay their quarterly dividends to the Treasury Department in August -- that's up from the 19 deadbeats for the month of May.

The biggest offenders were American International Group (NYSE: AIG), CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), First Bancorp (NASDAQ: FBNC) , Sterling Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: STSA), and UCBH Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UCBH).

The Treasury Department provided the USA Today with a pretty condescending explanation: "For some banks, it may be prudent to exercise their right not to pay dividends in a particular month, and we respect their right to do so. To draw any broader conclusions about the state of the banking sector from one month is highly premature and speculative."

CIT Group is one of the largest lenders to small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. But it has been plagued with financial troubles for nearly a year now. Last year the firm received $2.3 billion in federal bailout money. That helped them stave off bankruptcy for a while. Then this past July it received another $3 billion loan from some of its largest bondholders.

Apparently these stimulus packages are not enough to keep CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) afloat. The root of the problem is $30 billion dollars of outstanding debt. The latest maneuver would be to offer bondholders a stake in the company. This move would eliminate 40% of its outstanding debt, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The key sticking point here is that by turning over control to bondholders, common shareholders would be wiped out. In addition, the $2.3 billion in federal stimulus money would go up in smoke.

The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped about 125 points on Monday but has given back about two-thirds of that gain through trading so far today. The story with the S&P 500 index is similar, though not quite so severe: a giveback of about a quarter of Monday's gain. The NASDAQ Composite index is doing better, up about 3% so far today, to remain virtually even with Monday's gains. The indices are slowly gaining back some ground lost earlier this morning, so by the close of trading today, the markets could show a small gain.

Here are the numbers:

Dow 9,712.28 -29.92 (-0.31%)
S&P 500 1,057.07 -3.54 (-0.33%)
Nasdaq 2,122.42 -1.62 (-0.08%)

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this year will see the mirror image of last year, when redemptions ended the game for many managers.

One year ago today, a quarter ended that put hundreds of bullish hedge funds out of business. Today, a quarter ends that will put hundreds of bearish hedge funds out of business.

Oh, sure, last year some of the bulls were able to stumble through the fourth quarter, but October was a horror show and they ended up getting huge redemption letters and spending the rest of 2008 selling into the strength of the rally to return capital to investors and lock in losses.

Out of the chute this morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller index rose 1.2% in July and gave the market a nice uptick for a while. Then came the report from the Conference Board that its consumer confidence index for September fell to 53.1 from 54.5 in August. What was worse is that economists had estimated a rise to 57 for the month. The soft confidence number is almost certainly due to people worried about losing their jobs. Right now, it could be that traders are waiting for Friday's unemployment report before jumping one way or the other. The negative news won out and the indexes traded down most of the day.

The numbers:

Dow

S&P 500

Nasdaq

The market was remarkably bored about most of what the Fed had to say about the results of the FOMC. A close reading of the minutes shows nothing new. The economy is very modestly better. The turn for the better will be slow and painful. Housing may be getting a tiny bit better. Rates will stay near zero. The only statement which may not have been expected by almost everyone is that the agency will continue buying mortgage-backed and federal debt into the first quarter of next year.

The lack of enthusiasm showed as the major indices traded fairly flat. Today's unofficial numbers:

Dow 9,749.31 -80.56 (-0.82%)
S&P 500 1,060.90 -10.76 (-1.00%)
Nasdaq 2,131.42 -14.88 (-0.69%)

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the bizarre rules these days make it worth looking at stocks through a different lens.

How much should we care about low-dollar speculation? How much should we care about the incessant trading in CIT (NYSE: CIT) (Cramer's Take) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) (Cramer's Take), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) (Cramer's Take), or Vonage (NYSE: VG) (Cramer's Take) and Sprint (NYSE: S) (Cramer's Take)? Or even Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take)?

First, I have to tell you that I worry about it less than I used to. Why? Because when we used to have rules and government officials that were willing to speak the truth about stocks, we wouldn't have these single-digit players out there every day. But without it, how in heck can people not believe that Fannie and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) (Cramer's Take) are the biggest and best bets on a turn in housing?

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) posted better-than-expected Q3 results, sending shares higher.
• AutoDesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings, sending shares higher.
• Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) had another disappointing quarter as same-store sales declined.
• CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) delayed its Q3 report due to ongoing debt restructuring and a possible bankruptcy.
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) Q2 earnings came in well ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Today's market news was dominated by two events. The first is that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported earnings a bit better than expected and had a forecast that was a bit better than expected, to. Traders were left to ponder whether this means a modest return of the consumer or whether Wal-Mart is just that much better than its competition.

The government coincidentally announced July retail sales which were helped by the automotive "clunkers" program. Most analysts were surprised that the figure dropped .1%. The two pieces of news made traders reflect on the reality that the recession may be ending but the collateral damage is not.

Because no day can go by without some news on housing, there was date from RealtyTrac that foreclosures rose 7% last month compared to June.

The day's unofficial numbers:

Dow 9,399.17 +37.56 (0.40%)
S&P 500 1,012.84 +7.03 (0.70%)
Nasdaq 2,009.35 +10.63 (0.53%)

Today was one of those of those days that started out weak, and ended up that way as well. Wholesale inventories were down again for the 10th month in a row. Many analyst calls and a late summer breather are also to blame for the selling after we have seen such a strong summer rally. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA: 9,241.45 (-1.03%)
NASDAQ: 1,969.73 (-1.13%)
S & P 500: 994.35(-1.27%)

Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was hit today on an analyst call from Rochdale's Dick Bove, who said the settlement being held up by a judge is bad for banks. Shares were down 4% at $15.98 late in the day.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says many stocks, considered frothy at one time, have turned into good turnaround stories.

Here's still one more version of a short-seller's nightmare. What happens when froth turns to investible? What happens when you see behavior that clearly indicates froth and then, somehow, the fundamentals change, and the stock takes off?

We have seen that recently in so many situations that it is pretty dazzling. It was one thing to see Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take) back from the dead on its own.

As if there weren't sufficient causes already to refer to CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) as "beleaguered," the list just got longer. This morning, the financial services firm delayed filing its second-quarter report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), citing the ongoing restructuring of its debt as a mitigating factor.

Specifically, CIT told the regulatory agency that it could not meet Monday's 10-Q deadline "without unreasonable effort and expense," since executives have been spending most of their time lately attending to restructuring needs. The company is expecting a second-quarter loss in excess of $1.5 billion, thanks in large part to a loss totaling $2.1 billion from its discontinued home-lending operations.

If you have ever seen news exhaustion at the end of a week, this was that week. The only surprise after seeing the post-earnings reactions last night was that the market didn't stay down hard. Coming into this morning, we had a 12 day consecutive NASDAQ winning streak. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,095.51 +26.22 (0.29%)
S&P 500 979.78 +3.49 (0.36%)
Nasdaq 1,965.73 -7.87 (-0.40%)

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades