Powell Pumps S&P To Best August Since ’86, Dollar & Bonds Puked

August 2020’s 6.89% surge in the major US market index is the largest August gain since 1986 (when the S&P 500 rose 7.12%), but as the chart below shows Trannies almost doubled those gains…

Source: Bloomberg

This is the S&P’s 7th straight daily gain, 5th straight weekly gain, and 5th straight monthly gain…

“Do you want to play this game?”

And that strong month sent The Dow back into the green for 2020…

Source: Bloomberg

All thanks to an epic squeeze in the most-shorted stocks (doubling the S&P’s performance)…

Source: Bloomberg

The 5th month in a row…

Source: Bloomberg

With the strength being concentrated in fewer and fewer stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

As AAPL nears the same size as the entire Russell 2000!!!!

Source: Bloomberg

VIX was lower on the day after ‘unusually’ trading higher along with a higher stock market two days in a row…

Source: Bloomberg

It was an ugly month for bonds with the long-end up over 30bps…

Source: Bloomberg

10Y Yields spiked 20bps on the month – the biggest absolute monthly spike since Sept 2018 – back above 70bps (30Y back above 1.50%)…

Source: Bloomberg

But still some context for this rate move is needed…

Source: Bloomberg

Breakevens ripped higher this month (and up 6 days in a row) to their highest since Jan 2020…

Source: Bloomberg

Real yields ended marginally lower (down from -1.00% to -1.04% on the month)…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar was pummeled for the 5th straight month to its lowest since May 2018…

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos were mixed with Ethereum strong (DeFi boom), Bitcoin Cash weak, and Bitcoin flat…

Source: Bloomberg

Copper and Crude had a strong month, gold ended lower, silver the big winner…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold rallied back to yesterday’s Powell-spooked highs today…

But Gold ended the month unchanged…

Source: Bloomberg

But despite a big roundtrip early on, Silver rallied notably on the month…

Source: Bloomberg

Which meant the Gold/Silver ratio cratered (for the 4th month in the last 5)…ending the month at the lowest level (silver strongest relative to gold) since April 2017…

Source: Bloomberg

And finally there’s this!

Source: Bloomberg

And this…

Source: Bloomberg

And this…

• *BULLARD: WANT TO GUARD AGAINST ASSET BUBBLES GOING FORWARD

Because it’s different this time…

Source: Bloomberg

Probably nothing!