Although stock market internals are showing broad-based selling, the Arms Indexes for both the NYSE and and Nasdaq suggest there is still no panic selling, and instead imply that buyers of rising stocks may be acting more aggressively than sellers of decliners. The Arms Index is a volume-weighted breadth measure, that is used by many to gauge the intensity of a broad market decline. The index tends to rise above 1.000 when the stock market declines, as the sellers of declining stocks tend to be more aggressive than buyers of advancing stocks. A rise to above 2.000 is viewed by many as a sign of panic selling. Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 259 points, or 1%, and the S&P 500 is down 0.8%, the NYSE Arms Index has declined to 0.753. The number of declining stocks outnumbered advancers by a 2,497-to-374 margin on the NYSE, or about a 6.7-to-1 ratio, while declining volume leads advancing volume by 192.7 million shares to 37.7 million shares, or about a 5.1-to-1 ratio. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.7%, but the Nasdaq Arms Index was down to 0.762.
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