Business

The US total rig count dropped 18 to 619 in the last week with a drop of 12 in oil rigs (to 498) as the ongoing lagged drop of crude drives rig counts every lower. Perhaps oddly, given the rig count decline, WTI is tumbling as a 12 rig drop is clearly not enough...

• *U.S. TOTAL RIG COUNT DOWN 18 TO 619 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS
• *U.S. OIL RIG COUNT DOWN 12 TO 498, BAKER HUGHES SAYS

The trend continues...

And it appears the market wanted more rig count declines...

Charts: Bloomberg

What will they call this "crisis"? Or is it transitory and different this time?

Thanks to BoJ's idiocy, The Dollar is surging once again...

As we noted earlier, in a paradoxical U-turn, one which caught everyone by surprise as a result of Kuroda's own promise just one week ago not to engage in NIRP...

... and two months after the ECB's December 3 disappointing announcement led to a historic surge in the EUR, today countless macro hedge funds have been left reeling with huge losses once again, as many had recently turned bullish on the Yen...

... only to be eviscerated by the BOJ's negative rates announcement.

Something just broke in the options markets...

• *NYSE AMEX/ARCA OPTIONS INVESTIGATING A REPORTED TECHNICAL ISSUE

Perhaps this is why...

And of course...

While University of Michigan confidence slipped modestly from December's print, the tumble in expectations (hope) from the preliminary print is perhaps more important as stocks dropped and volatility struck. However, more problematic for an inflation-hoping Federal Reserve is the drop in 12-month inflation expectations.

The last time inflation expectations were lower than this was September 2010.. when Bernanke hinted at QE2 at jackson Hole.