Another day, another epic ramp. Any "investor" watching the last two days of totally manic market behavior must be open-mouthed at the total lack of fundamental sanity behind any of the moves. Even the mainstream media is stunned by the moves embarrased into mere commentary and afraid to opine on any reason. The reason for today's rip - an economic assessment downgrade for Japan which smahed USDJPY higher and through magic of carry, lifted US equities. There was no let-up in Ukraine, no data to confirm growth hype, no US news... but the Russell and Nasdaq managed a 2.5% bounce in a stright line after the Japan headline. Away from the idiocy in stocks, precious metals were rammed lower early on but leaked back higher all day. The USD pushed higher but FX was relatively quiet aside from the idiotic moves in JPY. Treasuries rallied at the long-end on the day (despite the surge in stocks). "unrigged"
Somebody was busy today...
Average Quotes/Trade for 8000 NMS stocks at it's highest point in 2 years. Thanks #HFT [10]
— Eric Scott Hunsader (@nanexllc) April 15, 2014 [11]
These are your markets...
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The Nasdaq bounced perfectly off its 200DMA and the Russell 2000 ended back above its 200DMA (after breaking it early in the day)
Here are your momo stocks today... just take a look at these moves... Bioetchs, Amazon lost 6% and rallied all the way back to unch...and TWTR rose 11.4%
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USDJPY was in charge... but the last hour stocks got ahead of themselves...
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Credit markets were correlated with stocks as expected but nothing like as juiced by the JPY monentum...
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Growth stocks are at 7-month lows versus value stocks...
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VIX remained closely coupled with stocks as Nanex exposed the freakish nature of the options market ince again today...
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Precious metals were monkey-hammered early on but limped back higher. Oil prices rose on Ukraine fears (but only modestly)
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FX markets were relatively calm aside from the outargeous swings in JPY...
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Treasuries rallied at the long-end with 30Y Yields back at 10-month lows...
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Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: High-Yield Credit remains the arbiter of the cycle and it seems stocks want to catch down to that reality as the growth hype unravels
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