Today may have been a very bad day for the stock market but it was a very good day at the pump as I was able to fill my near empty tank for less than 19 dollars.  That's right, I got today's gas for only $1.76 per gallon and it's been a very long time since we've seen prices that low.  And once again, all this bad news (and good news) was despite the fact that crude (and the energy sector in general) had a relatively good day.  The bottom line is that they're calling this the worst first-day on Wall Street in eight years and the worst first-day percentage drop since 1932 as the Dow plunged 276 points on reaction to this morning's panic sell off in China!

Yesterday I ended my commentary by saying, "Tomorrow it's back to business as usual."  But there was nothing usual about what happened today.  So many of the market wizards from Wall Street to Shanghai have called today's events completely unexpected.  But were they really?  A major factor that has kept China out of the abyss has been restrictions imposed by Beijing after last August's disastrous rout to limit trading on the Chinese exchanges, particularly that of the risky practice of short selling.  Those restrictions expired at the end of 2015 so today was the first trading day since that expiration that traders in Shanghai were allowed to operate unfettered.  What did they expect?  All it took was one bit of bad news -- in this case a report of further weakening in manufacturing (again, was this really a surprise?) -- and the panic began with the Shanghai index dropping a whopping 7% right out the gate, particularly with shorting,  until an automatic switch got tripped to halt trading.  But the sudden drop sparked global panic that reached all the way to Wall Street.

Don't these guys go to the movies?  Haven't they seen the new hit film "The Big Short" and understand how disastrous risky trades can be?  Especially in an already fragile market?  But it could have been much worse.  In fact, the Dow had dropped almost 450 points by 11 a.m. but then rebounded almost half that much by late in the session.  Let's hope the bounce continues tomorrow.  Predictably, today's panic with everyone back in the office was characterized by significantly above average volume of 8.5 billion.

Since China had such a strong bearing on today's events, before today's Reuters summary is a link to another article that goes into much more detail on the situation in Asia.  Welcome back from the holiday!

China stocks rout on first market day of 2016 trips national trading halt | Re

Markets | Mon Jan 4, 2016 4:38pm EST

Wall Street begins year sharply lower after China selloff

BY CAROLINE VALETKEVITCH

DJ:  17,148.94  -276.09       NAS:  4,903.09  -104.32        S&P: 2,012.66  -31.28

(Reuters)  U.S. stocks began 2016 sharply lower on Monday, with the Dow marking its worst start to a year since 2008, after weak Chinese economic data fanned fears of a global slowdown.Indexes partly recovered late in the session, following a turnaround in oil prices that caused energy shares to cut losses. At its low for the day, the Dow was down 467 points and was headed for its worst first-day percentage drop since 1932.

Surveys showed factory activity in the world's second-largest economy shrank sharply in December, sparking a 7-percent slide in Chinese shares that triggered a trading halt. Adding to investors' worries, China's central bank fixed the yuan at a 4-1/2 year low, further weakening it against the dollar.

U.S. data sparked further concern as factory activity weakened unexpectedly in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

"There was the turmoil overnight overseas that kind of set the tone ... (but) all of the negatives out there have been out there for a while," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

"The fact that we closed down on the year, the Fed tightened, it crystallized in investors' minds that we're not in the environment we were in throughout most of the recovery."

The selloff was widespread but not as deep as the slide caused by worries of a China-led global slowdown in August, when the Dow tumbled more than 1,000 points at one point.

Nasdaq led the day's decline and Amazon (AMZN.O), down 5.8 percent at $636.99, weighed the most on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while the Nasdaq Biotech Index .NBI dropped 3.2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed down 276.09 points, or 1.58 percent, to 17,148.94, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 31.28 points, or 1.53 percent, to 2,012.66 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 104.32 points, or 2.08 percent, to 4,903.09.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had their worst starts to a year since 2001.

All 10 S&P sectors ended lower, but the energy index .SPNY was down the least, with a loss of just 0.2 percent.

Crude oil ended a volatile session down slightly following concern about Middle East tensions, but Brent turned higher late.

Tesla (TSLA.O) fell 6.9 percent to $223.41. The electric car maker delivered 17,400 vehicles in the fourth quarter, just above the low end of its guidance.

About 8.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 7.2 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,127 to 977, for a 2.18-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,202 issues fell and 652 advanced for a 3.38-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 113 new lows.