Volume-less, Bond-less Day Pushes Dow To Another Record High

Isn't it intriguing that with the cash bond market closed, every other risk-asset-class in the world dies a horrible death of volume-less list-less price action? Today's only activity – bearing in mind the absence of the bond-market's almost ubiquitous POMO leveraging idiocy – was from the US open to the European close. From that point on FX markets (JPY crosses) and stocks went dead-stick pinned to VWAP (but managed new highs in the Dow). There was some divergences… HY credit (via ETFs) dropped rather notably to its lowest in almost a month; VIX was banged back under 12.5% – its lowest in almost 3 months; and crude oil prices jerked higher. Treasury futures indicate a 1-3bps yield rise on the day, the USD leaked lower (led by EUR strength), and PMs went nowhere fast treading water with modest losses. Stocks closed at record highs as the dash-for-trash remains front-and-center: "most shorted' names have tripled the market's 1.4% gain in the last 2 days!

"Most Shorted" stocks are up 4.3% from Thursday's close… triple the return of the market…