Three months ago, on December 4, when the ECB clearly disappointed markets and European stocks tumbled as the Euro soared, it took a speech by Mario Draghi at the Economic Club in NY to send stocks soaring...
After attempting a valeant, pardon the poor pun, Leap Day surge to close green for the month, a bout of late day selling resulted in the S&P500 closing just red for the month following a dramatically turbulent January, a continuation of the disappointing post Fed hike price action; indeed as noted earlier for global equities, February was the 4th consecutive month in which stocks declined and in many cases continued their presence in bear market territory.
Gold Rose Another 10% In February – Best Month Since January 2012
Gold bullion rose 10.1% in February adding to the 7% gains seen in January. This means that gold is the best performing asset this year, up 17% so far in 2016. Silver is the next best performing asset with an 8% gain year to date, followed by US Treasuries (30 Year Bond) which have gained 7.8% so far in 2016.
With markets happy to put February in the history books because it marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in global stocks, we move on to March 1st, which doubles down as 'Super Tuesday' in the US when Trump's presidential candidacy will almost certainly be sealed and a day in which stocks decided to join the super fun by super surging overnight on nothing but bad global macro and economic which however was promptly ignored and instead the focus was on ongoing central bank intervention and even more jawboning.
Moments ago, during his testimony before the European Parliament Mario Draghi made two very bold statements:
Well, until recently Draghi could point to the DAX or the Stoxx 600 and make that allegation; however following the recently collapse in European stocks he no longer can. So he is forced to revert to the one chart that actually does show whether the ECB's QE is boosting the all important lending channel.