Shorts were well-and-truly squeezed this morning providing (yet again) just enough ammo to push the S&P back into the green for 2014 and the Russell to new record highs as the pump-and-dump we noted earlier continued for the 3rd day. However, soon after Europe closed, the fabulous five (TSLA, AMZN, FB, AMZN, and TWTR) all stopped levitating and stocks began to drop back to JPY's reality once again. Treasuries continue to rally (-6bps on the week) to 2-week low yields (leaving stocks disconnected) and while early (and considerable) USD strength faded in the afternoon, the USD index ends up 0.2% on the week (with EUR weakness leading). Gold and Silver were monkey-hammered early on but the former recovered some of its losses to end +0.35% for the week so far. While stocks ended unchanged-ish, VIX (following last night's epiuc WTF moment) rose to 14.4% and credit spreads closed wider on the day.
"most shorted" were smashed higher out of the gate but faded fast this afternoon...
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The fabulous five opened strong but faded soon after Europe closed...
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Another day, another pump-and-dump...
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Which left the S&P red for 2014 once again...
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Treasuries continue to rally, notably disconncted from stocks
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The USD soared early on but gave some back as the US session stretched on...
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Credit markets were less exuberant than stocks once again...
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Gold and Silver suffered as the USD surged but gold recovered some of its losses... notice the PM selling started when Europe opened and finished when Europe closed...
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Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: Homebuilders had their biggest volume day in 5 months today and rose a stunning 2.7% (on the heels of a collapse in home purchase applications and a surprise surge in SEASONALLY ADJUSTED new home sales)... Ivy Zelman (a "guru") said it's Nirvana for homebuilders... we are not so sure (h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)
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