STOCKS ERASE LOSSES AND END FLAT: Here's What You Need To Know

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 16,330.8 (-20.4, -0.1%)
• S&P 500: 1,867.0 (-0.6, -0.0%)
• Nasdaq: 4,319.7 (+12.5, +0.2%)

And now the top stories:

• With no major economic data scheduled today, investors and traders had their eyes on China where slowing growth and plunging copper prices have everyone freaked out that the world's second largest economy is inching toward a credit crisis. Here's Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Ting Lu: "Bad news from China continued to feed markets. Markets (especially copper) were hit last night by news on the bond of Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric Co (TBE) which was suspended from trading on 11 March. For some investors who have already been deeply worried about "Bear Stearns Moment" or an imminent "Lehman Moment", this could be perceived as another snowflake to trigger an avalanche."
• But Lu's not worried it'll get too bad in China. Here's Lu: "We definitely don't think so because: (1) Let's not underestimate Chinese onshore investors' resilience; (2) Defaults of bonds and trust products are not on a similar scale to a collapse of a major financial institution which is intertwined with many other institutions; (3) The Chinese government, with its massive savings and control, still has a deep pocket to at least prevent systemic credit squeeze; (4) The Chinese economy, thanks to its huge savings, has a below 70% loan-to-deposit ratio, US$4.0tn FX reserves, and a very small amount of foreign debt. Like all other economies, the Chinese economy has its own ups and downs, but we think the chance for China to face a severe downturn and financial crisis is rather small. "
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