It would have taken some imagination to foresee that just about every asset class save stocks would get hit yesterday. Although the Dow Industrials, for one, began the day 200 points in the hole, the blue chip average went no lower intraday, and it ultimately settled 21 points above Friday's close. In retrospect, no one should have been too surprised that U.S. stocks bucked a global fire sale, since they'd already been sold to the point of exhaustion Sunday night in futures markets around the world. That might not sound very auspicious, but we cannot recall a single instance when punitive selling begun on a Sunday night carried into the NYSE opening on Monday. Some may recall that the 1987 Crash occurred on a Monday, but that was before index futures were traded around-the-clock. Had that been the case back then, we have little doubt that the worst of the selling would have been over before dawn on Monday, and that the short-squeeze that brought the stock market roaring back the next day would have occurred a day earlier, sparing investor's the agony of Black Monday. (Click on image to enlarge, if you dare) On Monday, commodities in particularly got knocked for a loop, presumably because they were so very overbought. Crude plummeted more than $8 from its highs, palladium was off nearly 10 percent, and the softs -- wheat, corn and soybeans leading the way ' got pummeled. Gold was a notable exception, ending the day about even with Friday's settlement price after being up more than $30 overnight. Treasurys rose moderately, with future contracts on the Ten-Year Note and 30-Year Bond up about � of a point ' hardly enough to suggest that a flight to safety was on many investors' minds. It felt more like liquidations by financial players who may
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