We're seeing a massive landslide of wins across the economic data spectrum this morning, with Retail Sales coming in hot at 9.8% vs the 5.3% expected, Retail Sales ex-auto coming in at 8.4% vs the 4.9% expected, jobless claims coming in at the lowest level since before the pandemic at 576k vs the 695k expected, and finally continuing claims came in at 3.73MM vs the 3.72MM expected. We'll see Industrial Production at 9:15AM, as well as Capacity Utilization. Isn't it interesting how quickly those stimmy checks made it to families, and then went straight out the door? So, no what? We're gonna need another stimmy cheque asap!
After some light weakness to end the trading day on Wednesday, followed by some further weakness in the overnight session, futures are skyrocketing higher on the positive data prints. As of 9AM, the S&P was trading up around 0.65% to 4,141.75, the Dow up 0.50% to 33,784, the Russell up 0.80% to 2,262.70, and the Nasdaq up 1% to 13,940.25.
Gold, Silver, Platinum, Copper, and Palladium, were all higher on the day, as the dollar burns to the ground on perpetual easy monetary policy, and "free money" fiscal policy.
The Vix is back near the post March crash lows, and is trading around 16.8 as of 9AM. We're seeing the most vicious decay in risk protection I've ever seen in my career. Risk is a bad word, and has seemingly been cancelled by Wall Street. Let's see how this progresses as Main Street lines up again with their hand out, for another round of stimmy cheques.
According to Goldman Sachs, “We are probably entering the last stage of the pricing of the growth acceleration, and we see encouraging signs suggesting the ‘reflationary’ environment can continue and be supportive for risky assets in the near term." This comes after Goldman, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo posted stellar quarterly results. Wall Street is just loving this bail out. They're simply never held accountable for their actions and their systematiclly threatening and reckless derivatives behaviour.
European stocks were mixed this morning with the Dax up half a percent to 15,264, the CAC40 down 0.64% to 6,170, and the FTSE up 0.69% to 6,941. In Asia, the Nekkei 225 was up 0.36% to 29,718, while the Hang Seng was down by 0.30%, and the CSI was up by 0.78% to 4,979.60.
Considering we're sitting at the ATH's, it appears we're in for another day of sideways PA, with markets having no other option but to catch all that free money, and levitate yet again. Stay patient as the ponzi nears the end, and free money begins to put pressure on the Fed to hike rates sooner than "expected".
Our live analysis begins at 9:30AM! Cheers, Michael.
*I am/ we are currently holding positions in UVXY, HQD, QID.