Snowball Sell-Off to Start The Month

Sometimes headlines reference the beginning or end of any given day/week/month just to fill space. On days like today, however, it's a relevant contributor to the selling pressure.  Today's "new month" selling is attributable to investors closing out temporary positions held for last week's "month end."  That was only part of today's drama though.  It was exacerbated by a glut of corporate bond issuance as well as the bailout of First Republic.