I thought the futures market came into play after the market closed at the end of the day — and ahead of the market opening in the morning. Nobama came on TV at 5:45 pm. The futures crashed after that, as I understand it. The 227 point plunge in futures down to 12,777 is in addition to the 158 points the market fell during trading hours, when it closed below 13,000 at 12,938.
I’m not entirely sure what it all means. Maybe someone else has a better understanding of the futures market.
The market closed at 4:00pm; the futures sell-off pretty much happened right after the close, WAY before Obama spoke. I’m a money manager and was watching this live. I stand by the belief the futures fall was tied to institutional managers wanting to hedge against their long positions.