Yesterday's stunning announcement by the US Treasury, which released a report titled "Treasury Announces Additional Action to Curb Inversions, Address Earnings Stripping", and which was clearly aimed at ending not only all tax inversions, but the biggest pharma M&A deal in history, Pfizer's tax-inverting takeover of Allergan (pardon Actavis) hit AGN like a ton of bricks, sending the stock crashing 20%.
The market's slumberous levitation of the past month, in which yesterday's -0.3% drop was the second largest in 4 weeks and in which the market had gone for 15 consecutive days without a 1% S&P 500 move (in March 2015 the sasme streak ended at day 16) may be about to end, after an overnight session, the polar opposite of yesterday's smooth sailing, which has seen a sudden return of global risk off mood.
Volatility (VIX) is now at its lowest level since before the August sell-off last summer yet CS Fear Barometer remains elevated leaving the spread between the two options-market-based indicators is at its widest ever.
Credit Suisse sees two main reasons for the difference:
1) VIX measures just vol whereas CSFB reflects skew (i.e. Demand for puts vs. calls) The skew being elevated is a function of the upside calls being sold broadly in the market plus portfolio hedging; and
Submitted by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,
Nearly 7 years have elapsed since the official end of the Great Recession. By now it’s painfully obvious the rising tide of economic recovery has failed to lift all boats. In fact, many boats bottomed out on the rocks in early 2009 and have been taking on water ever since.