Economic data confirms it's ugly out there

A lot of economic data hit the tape today, and it all tells the same story: It's ugly out there. While initial jobless claims dipped to 461,000 from 477,000 a week earlier, continuing claims rose to 3.711 million from 3.671 million, the most since June 2003. Net inflows into U.S. assets also came in at just $14 billion in August, well below forecasts for a reading of $30 billion.

Meanwhile, industrial production tanked 2.8% in September, much worse than the 0.8% decline that was expected and the single-worst reading in ANY month going back to 1974. And the Philadelphia Fed index plunged to -37.5 from 3.8 a month earlier. That was well below the -10 reading that was forecast and the worst reading since October 1990.