Ugly stocks, ugly bonds, but the dollar keeps doing its Energizer Bunny thing

There was more interesting market action today. The S&P 500 closed at a 12-year low, with other key indices (transports, utilities) also falling sharply. Despite that selling, long bonds couldn't catch a bid. The futures finished down 31/32 at 124 25/32, a fresh low for this bearish move. Meanwhile, the dollar index is finishing the day around 88.17, slightly below its previous closing high.

By the way, did you know there is an index that was recently put together to track the performance of the shares of companies that receive government aid? It's true. It's called the Nasdaq OMX Government Relief Index, or QGRI. The starting value as of 1/5/09: 1,000. Its current value: 538.16. That's a 46.2% decline in less than two months, much worse than the 21% decline in the S&P 500 during that same period. What a great ROI for our taxpayer dollars, eh?