The last week or two appeared to be dominated by hope that the transitory weakness in data was weather-related, the recovery was all good, and that the Fed would un-taper to give it a helping hand just in case... Today's FOMC minutes made it clear the latter was not the case and today's macro data made it clear this weakness is not just the weather. With US macro data at six-month lows, the last 2 days saw credit and equity protection markets well bid - even as underlying stocks surged back to unchanged on the year. However, between Fed talking-heads and the FOMC minutes, hope faded... stocks tumbled, credit widened, Treasury yields surged higher, the USD jumped, and precious metals were slammed into the red on the week. Volume - surprise surprise - was the highest in over a week.
US Equities turned perfectly as the Russell and S&P hit unchanged for 2014...
[7]
Not a pretty day as not even the inflamous JPY carry trade could hold us back...
[8]
Trannies are massively underperforming off the 2/4 lows...
[9]
What did VIX know?
[10]
And What did Credit know?
[11]
Gold and Silver were pushe dnotablyu lowerr (even as Oil surged
[12]
Bond yields surged back to almost unchanged on the week...
[13]
Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: US Macro at six-month lows...
[14]
Bonus Bonus Chart: Wondering what smashed US stocks higher early on? Of course it was USDJPY but look at where it recoupled?
[15]