I bought more PowerShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS) on weakness, reducing my average price/cost to $20.14.

There is $300 million to sell market on close.

I have taken a short rental in SDPR S&P 500 EFT (SPY) at $205.40 just now.

I am back long ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS) for a trade and I am again making SDS my long "Trade of the Week" at $20.23

My short "Trade of the Week" is Exxon Mobil (XOM) at  $80.32.

Why the latter? Because

• Energy stocks, such as XOM, are well ahead of the commodity.
• Exxon is overbought and the share price is extended.
• I wouldn't be surprised if XOM makes a large oil acquisition for stock.
• Tax selling might provide a headwind.

Traders once again have gotten caught offsides.

The fate of Mr. Market at the close will be a function of the last program standing.

The market is almost unplayable, unless you trade unemotionally or have a lengthy timeframe.

Here's an early afternoon edition of Takeaways:

• My opening missive suggested that the markets would not fold under the pressure of Friday's terrorist attack, that they could actual trade OK; those remarks proved correct. 
• That said, I expect that the next several weeks will be quite volatile.
• I plan to trade aggressively and opportunistically over the balance of the year. As I mentioned in the comments section:
• "I do not believe that investment management should be totally preoccupied by outlier events (e.g., extreme and frequent terrorism acts). Or, for that matter, any other Black Swan event. However, we should take this into consideration in determining our risk exposures and the possible level of volatility that an increasingly more probable event occurs. I reacted the same way you expressed concerns over the banking industry's derivative exposure. Note: Banks have been among the best market performers. And I write this, respectfully."
• Ss (S&P) over Qs (Nasdaq) and Rs (Russell).
• The slope of the yield curve is unchanged.
• Bonds are offered.
• Municipals are slightly better bid. Closed-end municipal bond funds are mixed; I continue to pare back my long holdings.
• Junk is unchanged; Blackstone/GSO Strategic Credit Fund (BGB) is trading a few pennies better.
• The U.S. dollar is stronger but share prices of consumer nondurables are trading higher.
• Europe bourses end in positive territory.
• Crude is up small, but energy shares are strong.
• Biowreck, in the form of iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB), is underperforming in a major way; the Bobbsey Twins of Mallinckrodt (MNK) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) are both lower.
• Retail stocks are higher, but only marginally so. Macy's (M), a recent purchase and entrant to my Best Ideas List, traded poorly today. 
• Financials turned around from morning weakness; my band of bank stocks did as well (I added this morning in the schmeissing). Tomorrow is Radian's (RDN) investor day. 
• (T)FANG -- Tesla (TSLA), Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), Google, now Alphabet (GOOGL) -- is mixed, with FB and AMZN down on the day. (Note: I added to FB short this afternoon).
• NOSH -- Nike (NKE), O'Reilly (ORYL), Starbucks (SBUX) and Home Depot (HD) -- is up on the day.

I just sold my last SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) at $204.60 on a scale from lower levels and I have taken my net short exposure back to small in size.

I just sold some of my long of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF(SPY) on the market's whoosh higher and am now marginally net short in the market.

(Clarification: An earlier version of this posting incorrectly implied that Kass sold all of his SPY long.)

We're nearly 30 handles off of last night's low for S&P 500 futures.

So, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF at $203.80, I'm beginning to scale out of the long SPY position that I recently bought as hedge against my individual stock shorts.

That's moved me to a slightly net short exposure again.

Oil prices improve, sending stocks to their session highs.

The latest from Sir Arthur Cashin:

"Run rate at 12:15 projects to an NYSE final volume of 790/870 million shares -- a biteblow last week's average."

Here's a great read from Reuters on stock buybacks!

Midday musings from Sir Arthur Cashin:

"Markets waffle a bit indecisively, reacting to twists and turns in crude. The near month got below $40.10, but never cracked the $40 level.

Markets' muted and mixed reactions (to the French terror attacks) should be less of a surprise since back in January after the last Paris attack, equities rallied the day after.

Markets apparently see these awful moments as 'one-off' events, with no immediate followthrough."

Here's a look at my trades so far today:

• I'm sizing up the following bank longs: Citibank (C), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), MidSouth Bancorp (MSL), Southern National Bancorp (SONA) and Sterling Bancorp (STL).

• I covered my short of Wells Fargo (WFC).

• I've added to my longs of Macy's (M) and the Blackstone/GSO Strategic Credit closed-end fund (BGB).

• I've added to my shorts of Facebook (FB) and Walt Disney Co. (DIS).

Peter Boockvar touches on freedom, human and economic progress -- which will never stop:

"European stock markets were very resilient this morning in the face of the horrific Paris events, with the CAC in particular little changed and the DAX up by about 0.33%. The euro was also flat and steady in the face of the Friday's tragedy.

The devastating events are certainly a reminder of the mess that is the Middle East and the threat that screams to all of us. But at the same time, radical terrorists will never learn the lesson that they will never be able to stop freedom, human and economic progress.

In terms of the economic and market response in coming months to the tragedy that is terrorism, I'm not going to even try to guess because none of us have any idea. But I believe the trends in place prior to Friday (trajectory of earnings, economic growth, monetary policy, valuations, market breadth, etc.), will remain dominant. We'll see if the pressure on oil and gold, which reversed today, changes.

Just days after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said core inflation has 'somewhat weakened,' October eurozone core inflation was revised up one-tenth to a 1.1% gain y/o/y. That's about half what the ECB wants, but it's the most since October 2013. Services inflation is now running at 1.3% y/o/y, the most since May. Headline inflation was left unchanged at a 0.1% gain, driven by an 8.5% drop in energy prices.

Draghi seems intent on adding more stimulus -- possibly as early as December -- but seems to be only fighting lower energy prices. That said, he will now be watching for any economic post-attack fallout in Europe, particularly in France.

Japan's economy is technically back in a recession after reporting a second-straight 0.2% q/o/q gross-domestic-protect decline. 'Abenomics' really began at the end of 2012 -- and since 2013's beginning, Japan has reported a q/o/q contraction in five of the 11 quarters.

Capital investment fell for a second straight quarter, although household consumption was up. Relative to expectations, real figures were about in line with expectations. But nominal GDP was two-tenths better than expected, with no change q/o/q due to a higher-than-expected inflation deflator.

The yen weakened on the news, but the Nikkei closed down by 1% along with many other Asian markets in an initial response to the Paris attacks before Europe opened. 

Another example of the slowdown in global trade came overnight in Indonesian October export data. Exports fell 21% y/o/y vs. an expected 17% drop. That's the sharpest decline since 2009 (except for one month in 2012). A 43% y/o/y drop in the oil-and-gas exports represented the main reason for the drop, but non-energy exports still fell by 17%. Imports collapsed by 28% y/o/y vs. the expected 22% decline.

In China, both the onshore and offshore yuan rallied after Friday's news from the International Monetary Fund of plans to include Beijing's currency in the Special Drawing Rights basket. The yuan will join the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound and the yen in the SDR.

Some suspect the yuan rose on intervention rather than the SDR news, which had been expected. The Shanghai index rallied very late in the day to close in the green after being down almost 2% intraday

Starting next week, China is doubling margin requirements to 100%. That follows nine straight days of increases in margin debt to put the market end near a three-month high. The looming regulatory change will certainly alter this trend."

Housekeeping item:

As I'm adding to my bank longs today, I've taken in my short of Wells Fargo (WFC).

Radian (RDN) will hold its latest investors' day in New York at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow.

It's a propitious time for the meeting, as RDN shares have recently retreated after ripping higher early this year.

Management will likely focus on these key items:

• How higher interest rates will impact RDN's core private-mortgage-insurance business.

• What business mix the company expects in 2016 between refinancings and new insurance. (PMI use is almost 4x higher with new mortgages vs refinancings.)

• A general discussion of the competitive landscape -- more specifically, a profile of industry pricing, as well as Radian's response and the impact on profitability if discounting increases.

• The broader outlook for PMI demand -- how large the business pipeline is, and whether the company expects to expand market share. Management has previously said RDN expects to write more than $40 billion of new insurance this year -- the company's second-best production in history.

• Whether the PMI industry will continue to recapture market share from the Federal Housing Administration, which seems to have retreated from the business.

Guggenheim has downgraded Walt Disney Co. (DIS) to Neutral from a previous Buy rating.

I recently shorted DIS and placed the stock on my "Best Short Ideas" list.

Call it at least a minor blow for margins at Apple (AAPL):

Best Buy is putting the Apple Watch on sale for $349, down from the regular $399.

I've recently argued that while bank stocks remain on my "Best Ideas" list because of their multi-year appeal, they're overbought now and could sell off in the weeks ahead.

So, I wouldn't recommend chasing the sector's recent strength. Instead, I highlighted potential entry points in a missive last week:

"I continue to believe that the banks will be among the best market sectors over the next one to three years. Here are my buy levels for my favorite, and current, long positions in banking:

• Bank of America (BAC): $16.50 to $16.75

• Citigroup (C): $52.50 to $53

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM): $63 to $64

• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): $19.50 to $19.75

• Southern National Bancorp (SONA): $11 to $11.50

• MidSouth Bancorp (MSL): Below $11

• Sterling Bancorp (STL): $16 to $16.50

-- Doug's Daily Dairy, My Buy Levels for the Banks (Nov. 9, 2015)

Well, the above stocks have been selling off in haste over the last five to seven trading days and are quickly approaching my buy levels.

In fact, Citibank, Fifth Third, Southern National, MidSouth and Sterling are already back into my buy ranges, so I'm beginning to rebuild these core investment positions this morning.

I covered the balance of my shorts of the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), the PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) on Friday.

S&P 500 futures dropped by more than 18 handles as of Sunday night as the Paris attacks' extent became known.

I hedged my long list of individual short positions by purchasing some SPY into this weakness, and I've moved back to a market-neutral position after having had a sizeable net short exposure as of midweek last week.

Note: The euro has not meaningfully moved since the announcement of the attack.

The Bottom Line

"Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance."

-- U.S. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

My guess is that any short-term weakness in equities that we see related to the Paris attacks (and I'm not convinced there will be any) won't be enduring. The killings, while another reminder that we live in a vulnerable world, shouldn't meaningfully impact market values in any sustaining way.

Politically, Paris changes everything and will likely galvanize the entire world (including the Muslim community) against Islamic jihadists. "Light footprints" probably won't be the military modus operandi any more. This is a new ballgame, and defeat and destruction of ISIS will likely trump the policy of containment.

How will markets react over the near term? It's hard to say.

On one hand, the market's near-term price momentum has quickly turned down -- and the fear and uncertainty of "another Paris" could place even more pressure on stocks.

On the other hand, many stocks have already been decimated since the market's May peak, and the robust counterattack on ISIS that I expect could prompt cheers (and maim extremists) in very short order. So, I actually believe we might not see much of a negative reaction this week.

Nevertheless, I remain bearish on a fundamental basis over the intermediate term -- bearish on corporate profits, valuations, global economic growth and worldwide equity prices. And as I mentioned earlier, the technical picture remains cloudy.

Importantly, central bankers are running out of options to revive a sickly global economy, and legislators both here and abroad are fiscally inert.

My fair-market value for the S&P 500 currently stands at about 1900, or roughly 6% to 7% below Friday's close. (Click here for my take on specific sectors.)

At some point, it's not unreasonable to expect a year-end rally -- but perhaps from current or somewhat lower market levels.

"(This attack was) against France, against the values that we defend everywhere in the world, against what we are: a free country that means something to the entire planet. (France will respond using) all the necessary means and on all terrains, inside and outside, in coordination with our allies, who are, themselves, targeted by the terrorist threat."

-- French President Francois Hollande, following this weekend's Paris terror attacks.

Friday's terrorist attacks complicate the market picture, but I don't agree with the consensus that emerged over the weekend that stocks will fall hard in reaction to the event.

Remember, Paris was already shaken less than a year ago by the January attacks on magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. That prompted a period of soul searching about France's secular values, as well as antiterror legislation designed to help authorities better prevent attacks.

January's incident targeted specific entities (French Jews and a satiric magazine that ran cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad). But Friday's attack seems intended to make French citizens feel that they're not safe anywhere, striking people involved in ordinary activities.

Perhaps the terrorists selected their latest targets -- a sports event, a popular restaurant and a music venue (known to have been a frequent meeting place for Jewish organizations) -- because each involve pleasures not allowed in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, as well for the recent downing of the Russian passenger jet. There's still much that's not known about the latest incident, but the French response has been swift and purposeful. The known terrorists are dead and France has declared a nationwide state of emergency, imposed border checks and put its army in control of protecting Paris.

"An armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America should be considered at attack against them all."

-- Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization charter

It's now clear to most people that the time for passivity has passed and that that we need a "roadmap" and robust response to terrorism. These responses could, in theory, have a salutary impact on stocks over time.

My take: 

France's Likely Response

I view Friday's attacks as France's 9/11. I expect the attack to harden the French people's resolve against ISIS. A major and continuing military initiative by France against ISIS targets seems probable.

America's Likely Response

To merely say that ISIS will be defeated -- as the Obama administration has done until recently -- isn't enough. (I would note that Hillary Clinton seemed to take a more-aggressive stance than President Obama in Saturday's Democratic presidential debate, essentially saying that America shouldn't see ISIS as a junior-varsity team.)

Words have little meaning to terrorists; actions do. I'm hopeful that Obama and both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will articulate plans for eliminating ISIS.

This could include major changes in U.S. and European Union immigration laws. That said, the U.S. situation is fundamentally superior to the problems facing Europe. While the EU's "Schengen rules" allow for easy travel within European Union borders, there are more serious roadblocks in our country.

America also spends more than $45 billion a year on homeland security ($650 billion since 9/11). By contrast, Germany spends only $660 million annually on its entire intelligence effort, and France only recently adopted a $786 million multiyear effort to combat terrorism.

NATO's Response

I expect the NATO alliance and others to launch a coordinated, massive ground assault on ISIS. I predict forces will attempt to eliminate ISIS's stronghold in Iraq and Syria. Diplomats will also place pressure on regional powers (particularly Saudi Arabia) to participate in these efforts.

The Muslim World's Response

A sustained and unified response now likely lies ahead, but the battle will be long and only truly won from within -- by the hundreds of millions of Muslims who are peaceful and disgusted with what happened in Paris. They, too, must raise their voices and be committed to act against ISIS in unambiguous and sustained unison.

The Economy's Response

I don't expect the Paris attacks to have any sustained impact on commerce or trade.

The Federal Reserve's Response

Coupled with the Paris attack, recent weak U.S. economic data could prompt the Fed to shifting the rate hike widely expected for its December meeting into 2016 instead.

"We are going to wage a war that will be pitiless."

-- French President Francois Hollande, following Friday's Paris terrorist attacks

I shared my views over the weekend about the terrible events in Paris, writing:

"The horrific events of the past 24 hours speak for themselves. Terrorism -- like the horror we experienced 14 years ago on Sept. 11 -- cannot be measured or quantified in market or economic reactions; it is simply a troubling reminder of a constant risk to a civilized society.

Unfortunately, this is the 'new normal.' There is a sense of hopelessness that has descended over Paris and the rest of the free world.

On a more personal level, Friday's horrible events opened wounds that I have shared with all of you before (and that many others have suffered, too) in the loss of Chuck "Brown Bear" Zion to al-Qaeda in 2001. It makes me sick beyond measure."

-- Doug's Daily Diary,The Constant Risk of Terror(Nov. 14, 2015)

Without being disrespectful to those the Paris attacks impacted, I'll be sharing my take this morning on what the incident will likely mean for investors. To begin with:

• The horror in Paris complicates the picture for Wall Street.

• I don't expect a meaningfully adverse response by global equity markets to the awful terrorist attack. Indeed, it's not entirely out of the question for stocks to trade higher over the next few days in response to the attacks, which could galvanize the world's resolve against terrorism.

• I am back to market neutral.

Factually, 2015 has been a year in which:

• Large-cap stocks have outperformed small-cap ones.

• Growth stocks have outperformed the cyclical sectors.

• Developed markets have outperformed emerging ones.

• Investment-grade debt has outperformed the high-yield market (i.e., "junk" bonds).

Most importantly, I remain of the view that Wall Street established an important market top back in May, and that most equities are transitioning from a six-year bull market into either a bear market or a meaningful, extended correction.

But unlike market bottoms, market tops usually involve a process -- with tests to both the upside and downside, as we've witnessed so far this year. And in the late stages, the topping process usually sees the market's "generals" holding up (like the TFANGs), while the "soldiers" are wounded (or worse). That's been the case so far this year.

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB) have all been the standouts, but even they began to show signs of some wear and tear late last week. If you look closely at the three stocks' charts, the recent price action appears to look more like "exhaustion gaps" than the beginning of a new up leg. (And if the recent gaps get filled, I'll be even more confident of that.)

Amazon's rally recently moved founder Jeff Bezos up to the No. 4 slot among the world's richest people. Such headlines -- like the ones we saw in 1999 when a Microsoft (MSFT) rally made Bill Gates the world's richest person --- usually occur at major market tops.

As for the "apple of everyone's eye," Apple (AAPL) has continued to underperform its growth brethren since hitting a May high. While it briefly experienced strength in the October rally, that proved short-lived.

Finally, the number of large-cap leaders is narrowing vs. what we saw in previous 2015 rallies. For example, leadership in health care has fizzled.

On the other hand, we've been seeing weakness in industrial stocks and basic materials (which involve depressed commodities). However, this group has begun to experience improving relative performance, with most stocks trading above their late-August lows. And in the case of the energy sector, stocks are trading far better than the underlying commodity (oil prices hit another new low on Friday).

Turning to the fixed-income markets, the high-yield markets continue to look "junky." This sector remains in a well-defined downtrend and is now threatening its September lows. But as I've written previously, a weak high-yield market has historically led to equity-market declines.

In summary, the technical conditions are pointing to market weakness ahead.

I'll share some deeper thoughts about the markets and the Paris attacks shortly.