While the markets have been generally lacklustre in the past two days, much of the enthusiasm associated with the last hour spike on both Monday and Tuesday had to do with optimism involving a significant relent by Janet Yellen during her semi-annual 2-day testimony in Congress starting tomorrow at 8:30 am.
Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,
A Curious Collapse
With the "generals" finally meeting their reality-maker, investors appear to be questioning the DotCom bubble-like highs as momentum collapses. "Exuberance has turned to panic pretty quickly," notes one asset manager and after a very rapid plunge in recent days, options traders are piling into protection at a pace not seen since Q4 2008.
The Nasdaq-S&P implied vol spread is more than double its 5 year average...
(ignore the spikes as they represent rolls as opposed to trends)
Two months ago the Australian media, which unlike its US counterpart refuses to be spoon fed ebullient economic propaganda, called bullshit on the spectacular October job numbers, when instead of adding 15,000 jobs as consensus expected, Australia's Bureau of Statistics reported that a whopping 58,600 jobs had been added. We covered this in "Australian Media Throws Up All Over 'Stellar' Jobs Report: "Don't Believe The Jobs Figures!"
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Ironically perhaps, the ideas that are scarce are those that disrupt "business as usual" by automating what has not yet been automated.
Let's consider a syllogism: Knowledge is power, power equals wealth, so knowledge equals wealth.