The Dodd bill continues to meander its way through the Senate; Beyond all the fundamental items very technical driven ,

· There are still a lot of balls up in the air when it comes to Washington/regulations.  The Dodd bill continues to meander its way through the Senate (there was a vote today on an amendment concerning the rating agencies that weighed hard on that group; late in the afternoon, an amendment that would require failed non-bank financial firms (such as AIG) to be liquidated in bankruptcy rather than having the government step in to dissolve them was rejected this afternoon – this seemed to coincide w/the sell-off today rather than really cause it).  On the trading front, CNBC is reporting that new circuit breaker rules will be handed down from the SEC this Mon (uncertainty around these regs could have caused a withdrawal of liquidity into the close; if HFTs are going to face large disruptions to their business models, they could be pulling back to reassess the environment). 

· Beyond all the fundamental items, this market remains very technical driven and we seemed to take a step lower after breaking through 1165 and then esp. 1161 (which is the 10day MA); we spent a lot of the day bumping around 1170 but couldn’t meaningfully move up through that level.  There isn’t a lot of conviction on either the long or short size of things.  The desk was pretty quiet, inc. into the bell w/the sell-off; the larger long-onlys still on the sidelines w/quicker trader-types dominating the bulk of the flow.