'Mini Flash Crash' Spooks Markets

'Mini Flash Crash' Spooks Markets by Liz Claman - reprinted with permission

“Is this it? Is this it?” You could almost hear the whispers all the way down on Wall Street. Was today’s downward draft of nearly 500 points on the Dow the capitulation market watchers had been waiting for, calling for, over the last five years of the bull market?

The answer, as traders heard the closing bell clang at 4 p.m. ET, was a resounding “NO.” We had closed well off the session lows, and the Russell 2000 small caps, which lately have resembled the Little Index That Couldn’t, actually closed in the green. That didn’t make the stomach-churning moves investors endured all day today...