From Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid:
We can't help thinking that as it becomes ever clearer that the Fed is pretty much fixed in its determination to stop QE late this year, the oxygen that has fuelled the 5 year bull market is slowly draining out of the market. Clearly the Fed is still buying a significant amount of bonds and thus providing a lot of liquidity but clearly only for a few more months. We think this is creating a lot more two-way tension in equity markets. Supporting this argument is the fact that those sectors that have done best since the bull market/high liquidity period started are suffering in the recent correction. If we define the beginning of the bull market as having started on the 9th of March 2009 when stocks hit their financial crisis-lows, the NASDAQ Technology and Biotech indices have gained 254% and 281% respectively. The S&P 500 homebuilders index has gained 256% over the same period. For comparison, the S&P 500 has gained “only” 177%. Tech, biotech and homebuilders are now down 5%, 19% and 12% from their YTD peaks. This compares with 3.1% retracement in the S&P 500 from the record highs posted in early April this year. So it does seems that sectors that have benefited the most from easy policy are those that are selling off the most right now.
But... what about the fun-der-mentals?