Everywhere I look I see talk of a major $USD bull market being underway. I see this coming from CNBC as well as so-called "investment gurus."
This is odd… because the $USD is DOWN against every major currency thus far in 2017.
I'm not making this up. The $USD is DOWN against the Yen, the Euro, the Swiss Franc, even the British pound.
And what asset class does well when the $USD falls?
Gold.
Conference Board Consumer Confidence smashed expectations in March - bursting to 125.6 (114 exp) - the highest since December 2000. Both the present situation and expectations soared, jobs plentiful jumped to its highest since Sept 2001.
It seems that real earnings do not matter for confidence...
Those expecting higher incomes surged as those expecting lower incomes plunged...
But stock market values do...
VIX was monkey-hammered back to almost an 11 handle at the US cash open this morning, in a desperate bid to get The Dow back green and prove that the Trump rally is still in tact... but it didn't ignite the momentum many had hoped for...
It was just yesterday morning, when futures were tumbling during the year's worst pre-market selloff in the aftermath of Friday's GOP failure to repeal Obamacare, that Bloomberg's Richard Breslow wrote "traders have lost confidence in their ability to interpret what’s plainly market-moving news." He added that "far from hoping to be the first to trade, [traders] need someone else to commit and help create the narrative. No wonder so many funds are shuddering and then shuttering."
European, Asian stocks have rebounded as investor anxiety over Trump economic policy and US tax reform eased following yesterday's remarkable comeback in the US market. S&P futures point to a slightly higher open, with oil higher and the dollar rebounding off fout month lows. It is a relatively quiet day in the US with the economic calendar focusing on wholesale inventories, consumer confidence and the Case-Shiller index.