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From stocks (Dow up 460 points from pre-Christmas lows), to FX (total craziness in EUR and GBP); and from Bonds (2Y underperforming this morning!) to Commodities (Copper soaring almost 3%, Crude spiking), it appears markets have gone nuts this morning...

Stocks - buy 'em, you'll love 'em...

VIX futures getting crushed...

FX markets - dump Cable, dump EUR

Treasuries - Short-dated bonds getting monkey-hammered...

And commodities are spiking... (despite USD strength)

Charts: Bloomberg

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

The S&P 500 closed at 2052 on November 18,2014. That was 405 days ago, and despite the rips and dips in the interim the broad market average has gone nowhere.

While the straws have been building on the camel's back of Apple's "no brainer" status over the past few months, today's news from DigiTimes appears to be the most damning yet on the 'peak Apple' phenomenon. Apple share are fading off early market highs as demand for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus appear to have slowed down recently, shipments of iPhone devices from production lines in the fourth quarter of 2015 are likely to be 5-10% lower than originally expected, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

As DigiTimes reports,

• The World's Richest People Got Poorer This Year (BBG)
• Oil hovers near 11-year lows on abundant supply, slowing demand (Reuters)
• Oil-Producing States Battered as Tax-Gushing Wells Are Shut Down (BBG)
• A Bold Few Traders Earn Billions Flouting Rivals (WSJ)
• Islamic State ruling aims to settle who can have sex with female slaves (Reuters)
• Winter Storm Snarls Republican Presidential Traffic (BBG)
• Donald Trump Urges Supporters to the Polls (BBG)
• China continues suspension of retail fuel price adjustment (Xinhua)

Santa Claus is cutting it close: after stocks closed down yesterday, and just fractionally red for the year, the jolly old gift-giver (who now has activist investors breathing down his neck) has just three trading days to push if not stocks then the market into the green for the year.