Moody’s Rating Service cut the AAA ratings of monoline bond insurers AMBAC and MBIA this morning before the opening bell. S&P had cut the AAA rating of both companies after market close on June 5th. For more information on this situation, read commentary from June 6th here:

The Story no one is talking about

The markets today are reacting to continued deterioration in the financial sector, rebounding Crude oil prices, and a sharply weaker Dollar. Today’s price action is being made even more dicey because of quadruple witching. Quadruple witching is the date each quarter that stock options, stock index options, single stock futures, and stock index futures expire. The next QW will be in September.

We are still feeling for the bottom in stocks. Short-term, we are oversold on most measures, however, it should be noted that significant declines can still occur even from oversold levels. The 12,000 level, then the 11,700 level are the levels to watch.  The DOW is currently in the 11,900 neighborhood and the S&P around 1325. We’ll need to see if these levels hold through the end of day.