Equities dead-cat-bounced today on minimal upside volume (and low average trade size) to get the S&P back to unchanged for the month. Broadly speaking risk-assets stayed well correlated with stocks though bonds and the USD looked somewhat dead trading in a very small range given recent shenanigans. Gold and Silver had their best day of the year so far as the former broke back over $1600 (and has now seen the best 4-day jump in 6 months). It seems Bernanke's relative dovishness is losing its equity appeal (as gap prices continue to rise) but precious metals (post China new year) have rediscovered some central bank balance sheet reality. Homebuilders, buoyed by the craziest seasonal adjustments ever to sales, swung from worst-to-first on the week. Equities tracked spot VIX most of the day but even VIX did not fully partake of the exuberance in the last hour or so. AAPL's rumor-driven tom-foolery pushed it handily up to yesterday's closing VWAP +1.4% and supported the broad equity market (just as HD did in the Dow). Despite the best efforts of the media, putting lipstick on this pig day after yesterday is a push in our view.
Bonds ended the day +/-1bps (down 7bps on the week) and tracked stocks on the day. Gold surged post Bernanke. USD flatlined most of the day as JPY stayed higher and EUR did nothing. Oil rose a little on the day but remains down on the week...
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S&P 500 futures show so clearly the volume surges on the downside and negligible on the upside reactions as algos take over... ES dumped back down to VWAP after-hours today...
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as Builders went from worst to first in their exuberant high-beta way...
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VIX and stocks tracked tick for tick except for the last hour where equities got a little ahead...
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Gold has had its biggest 4-day gain in the last six months...
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As equity indices pushed up to unch for the month (apart from NASDAQ)...
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HY credit and equity markets were flat relative to one another today..
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and AAPL rose merrily to its closing VWAP magical level on the back of stock split rumor idiocy...
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FX markets flatlined broadly apart from JPY with its wild swings...
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and breadth ended the day terrible (h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)
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Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context