Wholesale inventories plunge and Kim shoots off some missiles… but Powell panders to TBTF banks and GOP pushes tax bill = so buy mortimer buy…
Overnight saw The National Team step in and save China…
But today's market action was dominated by the usual opening idiocy, tax-reform headlines, Jerome Powell comments, and North Korea – of course, all of that meant record high stocks.
Well that de-escalated quickly. After snapping higher on a North Korean ICBM launch, gold was pummeled lower (and stocks higher) and stocks soared after the GOP tax bill was advanced to the senate floor…
Nasdaq briefly went red on NK Nukes headlines but then the panic-buying kicked in and Trannies and Small Caps ended best…
On the day, Retailers and Banks screamed higher…
Financials (XLF) soared most in 8 months back up bear record highs after Powell claimed 'Too-Big-To-Fail' is over and that regulations are too tough.
NOTE – XLF bounced perfectly off its 50DMA
High Tax companies notably outperformed…
Today was another huge short-squeeze – the 8th day in a row that "Most Shorted" have risen…(the biggest short-squeeze since the election)
The question is – did the ammo for the squeeze just run out?
Stocks and VIX were not partying together…
Stocks remain massively decoupled from FX carry…
And entirely decoupled from bonds…
Bonds were very marginally higher in yield across most of the curve with 30Y actually ending lower (in yield)…
The Dollar Index gained for the second day in a row…
Weakness in EUR, CAD, and JPY helkped offset cable's strength…
Cable surged to the highs of the day after headlines that the EU had agreed on the Brexit divorce bill (despite plunging early on Carney's comments about how hard it will be)
Bitcoin was up again and according to some exchanges did pass above $10,000. However, our preferred soruces showed it just short…
WTI slipped back and closed below $58 (Jan 18 contract) ahead of tonight's API data…
And copper was clubbed like a baby seal…
Gold futures (Fed 18) topped $1300 (spot did not) on North Korean headlines but were unable to hold it after the tax bill…
via http://ift.tt/2AjNcMN Tyler Durden