Markets opened upward but subdued this morning, but the bears started selling in earnest around noon ET. SPX lost $23 to close at $1819, and RUT closed down $16 at $1148.  Volatility bumped up over one point with the VIX closing at 13.3% - but this is still a relatively low level. Trading volume spiked upward with 2.4 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. Trading volume increased 8% both on the NYSE and on NASDAQ.

Several news sources pointed to comments by Dennis Lockhart, the Atlanta Fed president. He said he favors further tapering of the stimulus programs and that may have been the trigger for the selling spree this afternoon. If that's true, we may see a pop back upward tomorrow as calmer heads dominate trading. Analysts this morning were pointing to the market's strength in the face of an extremely poor jobs report as evidence of a continued bull market. But, by the end of trading, bearish analysts were saying this is the beginning of the long awaited correction. As we saw repeatedly last year, this is a nervous market and can turn on a dime with a news report or even a rumor.

So we are left with the questions of the past several weeks: Is this market at excessive levels and therefore primed for a correction? Or will it blow off the excess by trading sideways for a few weeks or months? We'll see.