As headline after headline hit today, US equity markets jumped and dumped as the early POMO ramp faded in an oh-so-familiar manner. As the day-session opened, "most shorted" stocks tumbled hard (-1.6% vs the market -1%) and that provided the ammo for the ramp as POMO and PMI hit. That rally stopped on time as EU closed and POMO ended and then Washington took over. FX and commodity markets were volatile early on a settled late as a EUR surge early on (on Italian political news) smashed the USD lower and sparked some risk on. The USD spent the rest of the recovering back to unchanged. Commodities ended the day cuffed at -0.5% in an oddly cozy way given the early rips and dips in Gold and Silver. The S&P has fallen 3.5% from its all-time un-taper highs, is closing right at its 50DMA, and underperformed gold and silver for the quarter.
It seems that MSFT was responsible for a large part of that last-minute ramp.
The day in headlines...
[7]
Early shorts were Heisenberg'd through POMO...
[8]
The USD was hammered early as rumors of a splinter group from Berlusconi's party hit but spent the rest of the day rallying back to unch...
[9]
The USD moves did impact commodities but Bank of France rumors and a seeming need to recouple by the end of the day were the biggest drivers...
[10]
Gold and Silver handily outperformed US equities on the quarter...
[11]
and just to highlight the craziness of the late day ramp in stocks - here is the behavior of the rest of the risk assets... it seems JPY carry was the driver...
[12]
Charts: Bloomberg