Oil and commodity crunch is the story

The start of the year was a scramble for explanations. Market watchers were quick to blame China because of a modest drop in the renminbi. Others pointed to the Fed hike and continued hawkish talk.

They have been looking in the wrong direction. The big story is the commodity collapse and today's drop underscores it. The market is frightened about the fallout from slowing growth in commodity exporters and the potential implosion of energy junk bonds.

I laid it out yesterday in an interview with BNN.