Surprise - equities rally on volumeless (25% below average volume in S&P futures) and low average trade size trickle to Thursday's highs. Risk-assets in general traded in a narrow range and did not enjoy the after-lunch 1% linear ramp anything like as much as stocks. Market breadth (TRIN) was not in any way impressed with the indices - which staged a viagra-like ramp in the last few seconds entirely ignored by the underlying stocks themselves. A 0.5% rise in stocks was accompanied by a 3bps rise in Treasury yields, Gold and Silver ended the day unchanged as did the USD (even as GBP rallied 0.5% and AUD rallied around -.8% from its overnight gap down lows). WTI recovered off its lows back above $90 by the close. VIX remains decoupled from stocks but dropped tick for tick as they rallied today - almost back to 14.0%. Meanwhile, AAPL slipped 2.5%, JCP over 5%, and MBI popped 24% on a legal win against BofA.
And so we find ourselves, a week from the Italian election and the scores on the doors are: ES +2pts, 10Y -13bps, USD +1.5%, WTI -$4, Gold -$15... magic..
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no volume ramp...
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This afternoon's run for the hills in stock indices had an odd feel to it (don't they always) as risk-assets in general were not at all impressed...
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S&P 500 index vs market breadth (TRIN) - didn't seem like anything but stop-running in the indices...
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and increasingly it seems like a pure run-stop for Thursday's highs and the up-trend channel...
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And VIX remains a little more hedged that equities would like it to be...
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Charts: Bloomberg And Capital Context [9] [9]