Authored by Peter Tchir via Forbes.com,
We have all heard the VIX or volatility index referred to as the Fear Index or Fear Gauge. Rising VIX was meant to signal fear in the markets. That is how most investors have historically thought about VIX and traded it (directly or through Exchange Traded Products).
Last night's API-reported surprise crude build sparked selling that not even Russia/Saudi jawboning could rescue, but DOE data showed the exact opposite with a big crude draw and even bigger gasoline draw. Added to a new record high in US crude production and RBOB is fading and WTI is not rallying.
API
This is not supposed to happen...
Liquidity?
As Nasdaq tumbles, Bitcoin is air-pocketing...
But notably Bitcoin followed, did not lead...
The tumble in Bitcoin appears to have hit Nvidia hard...
Following the bounces in new- and existing-home sales in October, all eyes are on Pending Home Sales to complete the trifecta of 'proof' that housing is back baby... and it did rising 3.5% MoM (beating expectations of a 1.0% gain). The driver of the surge was The South (up 7.4% MoM) as September's 3% hurrican tumble is erased.
September's data was revsised slightly lower (from 0.0% to -0.4%) but October's jump is the biggest since Feb..
The surprise surge was driven by a huge rebound in The South:
With only three weeks left until her final meeting as chairwoman of the FOMC, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen today will make what's expected to be her final appearance before Congress when she delivers testimony to the Joint Economic Committee. The Fed was already widely expected to raise interest rates next month, but in case there was any doubt, Yellen pushed the dollar higher when she released her prepared remarks. In her remarks, she praised the "increasingly broad-based" economic expansion that she is leaving in the hands of her successor and colleague, Jerome Powell.