Today we finally got some decent downside as the Dow lost 166 points on heavy volume. Advance/declines were around 4 to 1 negative. The decline had nothing to do with economics. The market finally took into account the unrest in the country of Egypt. It's been going on for a while but today it made headline news. There's rioting in the streets and it's possible the government won't hold up. The market never likes uncertainty, hence the sell off. GDP came in about around as expected and was not a factor. Players didn't like the numbers from MSFT and that helped the downward trend. We'll see if we get any downside follow through to the indices on Monday. I don't think this is the beginning of a protracted decline. But what do I know? GE lost a dime on good volume and continues to hold up quite well. Its relative strength is superb at the moment. I'd like the March calls at some point. Gold was up over $20 today as the flight to safety trade returned for a day at least. The dollar was higher as well. The XAU barely participated and rose almost a point. ABX up 7/8, GG was flat and NEM lost 3/8. So it was a mixed performance there. Volume was heavy. I'm hoping that the gold shares are trying to put in a bottom here but the jury is still out. I canceled the open order for the February ABX calls but I do still want to try that trade. Perhaps next week before the employment numbers. I'll have to check things on the charts over the weekend. Mentally I'm feeling OK. Today was the first serious decline in the indices in months. We still haven't broken the major uptrend line in the S&P 500. The trend remains higher for now. We will be moving back down on the summation index with todays action though. We'll have to wait and see what Monday brings. The weekend is upon us and it's time for a break.