The major US equity indices got hammered on Friday with investors fleeing in droves, but is this the start of a sustained selloff

The major US equity indices got hammered on Friday with investors fleeing in droves, but is this the start of a sustained selloff? First off, let's look at the damage. For the year, the S&P 500 is down a bit over 3% and the Dow Industrials are down over 4%. Tech stocks have held up better, with the NASDAQ 100 down just over a percent. The catalyst for this current bout of selling is clearly the poor performance of emerging markets - namely China. A slowdown in Chinese manufacturing really sparked investors' fears over a global economic slowdown. Personally, I think this just a case of investors looking for a reason to cash out after big gains in 2013. Very few investors believe stocks can continue to perform at last year's pace. Nevertheless, fundamentals don't really support a sustained drawdown in equities.