Business

Last week we warned of 'low volume highs' as internal cracks began appearing in the markets. Today, J. Lyons' Fund Management's Dana Lyons points out another 'crack' - The recent string of Nasdaq new highs occurring with negative breadth has only been matched by a stretch in 1999-2000.

In the last few months, we have observed a recent cluster of 52-week highs in the Nasdaq Composite occurring along with negative breadth on the exchange, i.e., more declining stocks than advancers.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

There is an increasing amount of commentary which suggests this time is different. Active management of portfolios is no longer needed, as Central Banks continue to be supportive of the markets, so join in on the “passive indexing” sweeping the country.

Last night we showed the dramatic impact Amazon has had on the retail sector, where over $6 billion in retail debt has filed for Chapter 11 protection YTD...

... a 110% surge compared to the first half of 2016, and pointed out that there was one recurring name mentioned among 2017's bankrupt retailers listed in the chart below: brands such as Gymboree, Payless, rue 21 and the Limited all cited Amazon affect as a contributor to their downfall.

There is no getting away from it: in what has become a long-running tradition, every day brings a new explanation (or at least attempt) to the current low-vol regime from a major bank, and today it was (again) Bank of America's turn to explain why the VIX, and cross asset vol in general, both continue to trade near all time low.

Unlike last Monday's 3M T-Bill auction, which as a reminder priced at the highest yield since the fall of October, but more importantly showed a dramatic "kink" in the 3M-6M bill yield due to growing concerns of a disorderly debt ceiling debate and potential government shutdown...

... moments ago the Treasury auctioned off $39BN in 3M and $33BN in 6M paper, which came off without a hitch - with the 3M stopping through the 1.08% When Issued, pricing at 1.07%, and more importantly, the 6M-3M bill spread has now normalized.