Just like Friday, there was virtually nothing notable to speak of in today's trading. The one catalyst that pushed stocks higher: all stocks, not just the one that may or may not be in play, was the DELL LBO rumor, that prevented the DJIA from going red on the day and pushed the 30 stock average well above the red, even if the S&P500 was not quite so lucky. As for what really mattered today, it is summarized in two words: "AAPL" and "$500." After breaching $500 briefly in the early trading session, the end of trading saw a concerted selling effort in the one stock most heavily owned by the hedge fund community, yet no matter how close it got to breaching $500, and sending the company into who knows what stop loss tailspin, someone kept buying just above $500 thereby preventing the uber levered hedge funds from having to start liquidating holdings to meet margin calls.
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And yes, ES, controlled entirely by algos, ended up closing right at VWAP:
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