The US equity markets were in rally mode on light volumes until this afternoon when news that Deutsche Bank will be raising a substantial amount of capital (9 billion euros or roughly 11 billion US dollars) through a share sale took the wind out of the sails of the financials which had been leading the charge higher.
Deutsche Bank, aka Buba, is considered the 'gem' of German banks, and this dilution of almost 30 per cent came as a shock as it is almost three times as much as was expected if they were making a significant increase in their 30% ownership of Deutsche Postbank AG that has been discussed. It brings into question what is coming out of the Basel III discussions, as well as further speculation about what bad debts remain undiscounted on the banks' balance sheets.
SP 500
NDX
The Nasdaq 100 futures chart in particular shows the significance of the resistance trend that the NDX faces right now.
“Blood and power intoxicate; they help to develop callousness and debauchery. The mind then becomes capable of the most abnormal cruelty, which it regards pleasure; the man and the citizen are swallowed up in the tyrant; and the return to human dignity, repentance, moral resurrection, becomes almost impossible."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The House of the Dead