Stocks opened a little higher, and we were off to the water park... The remainder of the morning was a nonstop slide, and after a very brief attempt at a small bounce in the early afternoon, the bottom fell out in the final hour, sending the S&Ps out on the very worst levels of the session with a loss of a percent and a half. That close also put the S&Ps at a new low for the week and just shy of taking out the lows of the year.

As for what prompted the selling, as we've seen for a couple weeks now, there really wasn't any particular reason. Sellers simply showed up and spanked pretty much everything. The IGV software ETF, which has been the recent poster child for selling, retested its recent low but still ended down about 3 percent. Crypto was also spanked, with BTC losing another 3 percent and MSTR losing over 2 percent, as they continue to head towards a retest of the lows (just like IGV).

I would also note that the financials are now beginning to come apart. What started as supposedly AI-fears in a few names, like MS and SCHW, has now spread to all the financials, which are all now back at 2026 support on the charts, just like the S&Ps. If those lows give way, look for some ugliness to develop.

Once again, per the recent pattern, the dollar was also firm and yields slipped.

Commodities were also lower across the board (per the recent pattern). Copper slumped 4 percent. Platinum fell 7 percent, and Brent crude fell 3 percent. The GCC commodity ETF fell over 3 percent.

The commodity stocks were also hit. The XME fell nearly 6 percent and nearly retested its Feb low, while the COPX copper miner ETF fell over 3 percent and still has a ways to go to test its Feb low.

Like the base metals, the precious metals were spanked too. Gold had been only off a touch and hanging around the $5050 level both overnight and early on during the US session, but as stocks tanked and the dollar rallied, gold suddenly fell out of bed and plunged $175 in about 20 minutes to as low as $4877 to mark the low of the day. From there a bounce appeared, but it ran out of gas shy of the 5K mark. The yellow metal would slip again to eventually go out back near the lower levels of the day at $4920.

Now, also around mid-morning was a story on Bloomberg about Russia potentially agreeing to go back on the dollar system as part of the end of the war in Urkaine and as part of a trade deal with the US. However, it should be noted that this appeared to have nothing to do with the tumble in gold or everything else for that matter. This was simply another case of generalized selling across the board.

Speaking of selling, silver was already down about 2 percent for most of the morning, but when gold hopped off a cliff, silver jumped off the same cliff and shot itself in the head at the same time. Unlike gold, silver never really bounced much after its initial 12 percent collapse, and it would pretty much go out on the lows of the day with that loss too.

As for the GDX, it opened slightly lower and basically followed the S&Ps and silver all day (less so gold), and it too would go out on the worst levels of the day with a loss of over 7 percent to engulf the entire week of trading. That close would also put the GDX back below the 5 dma, which puts the bears back in control statistically. Volume also expanded on the decline.

With the metals all moving back below the 5 dma along with the GDX, GDXJ, SIL, and SILJ, we certainly appear to have seen a classic failing rally after an initial break from the highs. What typically follows is something far worse than the initial break from the highs and leads to new lows below the initial selling wave.

I've obviously been expecting a failure like this, and barring an immediate recovery back above the 5 dma tomorrow by the GDX, gold, and silver, etc, I suspect we're now going to test the Feb lows and probably break them sometime next week.

For tomorrow though, perhaps we'll get some sort of bounce on the open when the CPI comes in "cool" or some such nonsense? Remember, this selling is because of positioning and froth. It has nothing to do with fear of the CPI, even though like the jobs data on Wed, I could make an argument for a hot number. But there's no guarantee that anyone would care?

My gold model moved back to neutral.

Positions: I left my equity shorts unchanged, and I continue to lug around IBIT. I bought GDXD back shortly after the open this morning and bought SLV 70 puts for tomorrow for 22 cents. In the wake of the mid-morning collapse, I then daytraded the SLV puts for $2.80 simply because I couldn't pass up a 12x trade after only holding these puts for a couple hours.

As the GDX then bounced a little, I added more 90 puts for next Friday on top of the ones I bought yesterday as well as some 85s and 87s. I also bought 95 puts for tomorrow's expir. Subscribers know the prices I paid for these, but I don't have time to post them here tonight. I also remain long the GDX 90, 89, and 86 puts for tomorrow, although as I mentioned yesterday, I worry that these are too far away to work this week, which is why I added more exposure for next week.

If the metals and miners bounce on the CPI in the AM, I will likely add to these positions.