Bonds & Stocks Pop As Silver Drops

Despite the best day in the S&P (+0.6%) since the Taper (12/18), this remains the worst start to a year since 2005. The Dow stands out as the best of the bad bunch ( down only 0.25% from 2013 close highs) while Trannies remain the worst. Homebuilders tumbled back to recouple with Financials post-Taper. Treasuries decided to ignore the equity strength and rallied once again (with 10Y now -10bps on the year) even as the USD was well bid back to unch on the week (once again all the vol in the US open to EU close period) with notable CAD weakness to its lowest since May 2010. USDJPY was on-and-off in charge with stocks staying in sync until the EU close, reconnecting briefly in the afternoon, then taking off again. VIX dropped back under 13% (but stocks were relatively outperforming). Precious metals remained in the headlines, this time with weakness, but from the early spike down, they recovered half the losses.

Some recovery today but stocks remain off their 2013 close highs (and worst start to year since 2005)…

S&P 500 took out yesterday's pre-open highs and as opposed to yesterday found support at VWAP today… and dumped to it perfectly at the close

From the Taper, homebuilders have recoupled with Financials and Tech, Staples and Utes remain the underperformers…

Bonds continue to rally…10YTSY -10bps but notably 30Y mortgages are +1bps!

VIX remained well correlated but stocks were notable outperformers from the open…

Once again, JPY carry was in charge into the European close – briefly reconnected – then disconnected into the US close…

Precious metals were monkey-hammered early but rallied back as the day wore on…

The USD rose back to unchanged on the week (led by notable CAD weakness – worst day since Nov 2011 to May 2010 lows)…once again all the vol occurred between US open and EU close…