Bulls Blow It AGAIN, As Stocks Sell Off Big In Late Trading: Here's What You Need To Know

The overnight session was terrible, but it looked for a moment as though the bulls might put a halt to the selling, as at one point stocks were sharply higher. But, no. Stocks got hammered in late trading.

Here's the scoreboard:

Dow: -112 (-1.1%)

S&P 500: -18.70 (-1.72%)

NASDAQ: -35 (-1.54%)

And the big stories:

•BP was savaged during trading, ending down about 15%, as it sunk in that no solution would be forthcoming in the Deepwater mess, and that the company could really go bust. That was a topic of discussion all day. Late in the day, fresh headlines came out suggesting that a criminal investigation was underway. Don't miss the 10 disastrous mistakes made by BP prior to the explosion >

•Key industrial commodities also had a bad day, with copper, oil, and palladium all falling notably. Gold had a very good day, ending up 9.

•The big global economic stories came out of China. A slightly weak PMI really spooked markets overnight, as it suggested that the demand growth could not be counted on ad infinitum. There was also plenty of talk that China is depleting its commodity stockpiles that it's been building up for sometime.

•Domestic economic news was fairly quiet, though the one big number, the ISM Manufacturing index was solid. All eyes are on this Friday's jobs report.