Goldman Sachs giveth and Goldman taketh away. This morning I mentioned that I didn’t think that the whole financial sector didn’t deserve to rise in sympathy with Goldman on its earnings news. Well apparently Goldman agreed with me because a little while later they warned about more losses in the financials. That was enough to squash the early rally and send financial sliding, along with Goldman’s own stock. Here are charts of XLF and XBD, which were so close to breaking their May downtrends this morning before the selling kicked in:

Some people were trying to blame yesterday’s light volume on people watching the U.S. Open playoff. I don’t know what today’s excuse would be — maybe it’s just the summer doldrums. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 lost about 2/3 of a percent on a slight drop in volume.

Trend Table
Trend Nasdaq S&P 500 Russell 2000
Long-Term Down Down Down
Intermediate Up Down Up
Short-term Lat(-) Down Lat(-)

(+) Indicates an upward reclassification today
(-) Indicates a downward reclassification today
Lat Indicates a Lateral trend

*** I’m simply using the indices’ relations to their 200, 50 and 10-day moving averages to tell me the long, intermediate and short-term trends, respectively.