The last time the USD closed down (DXY -1%) on the week, and so did stocks (Dow/S&P/Nasdaq -0.25%), was the week heading into QE3 which marked the top of the US equity market for the year. With contracts rolling, the futures were roiling into the close as they were ping-ponged between new week lows and VWAP. The Dow Transports stood alone in their outperformance +1.1% (but were sliding rapidly into the close) and while most sectors were weak (Discretionary worst -1.2%), Materials outperformed (+1.66%) in a world of their own today. Silver slumped 2.4% on the week while Oil added 1% with gold flatlining since yesterday morning down around 0.5% on the week. AAPL, obviously, was the story today -7.75% in last 3 days to 10 month lows on huge volume today. EUR strength (+1.75%) dragged USD lower but was stymied by JPY weakness (-1.25%) as Treasury yields came off the week's highs to end 7-9bps higher on the week. VIX at two-week highs closed above Europe for the first time this year. Some peculiar volume and behavior in bond ETFs to note also (HYG saw biggest 2-day drop in a month) - markets feel very brittle up here.
The last 28 hours in S&P 500 futures land...bwuahahaha
Dow Transports seemed all excited today as the rest of the major indices plunged off mid week highs to end down around 0.25%...
Materials outperformed, Discretionary underperformed...
AAPL is still +25% YTD (as compared to 15% YTD for NDX) but AAPL and Nasdaq are now both up only 2.5% from 02/09/12 - so basically unless the manager bought in January, AAPL is weighing on his performance (still).
Away from the equity markets, credit saw some extremes today. A massive spike in LQD (investment grade credit) volume followed shortly by HYG (high yield credit) volume suggested (by the market action) that there was duration-weighted rotation from risky-credit into 'less' risky credit...
Decent USD weakness (via EUR strength) was stymied a little by the weakness in JPY this week
Commodities diverged quite notably in the face of USD weakness...
and long-dated Treasuries have almost retraced the losses from post-FOMC...
Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context
Guest Post: SWHC plunged on the dreadful news of the CT shooting then dumped again on major volume as Obama spoke...
