By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at
Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing.
Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity.
VIX was being crushed and stocks were leaking higher just as planned, until Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hit the tape beating war drums and announcing a new US policy on Syria, just a week after he said the US had no interest in removing the Syrian president.
Specifically, Tillerson said that steps are underway to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and that the U.S. is considering an "appropriate response" to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons.
While Trump's push to build a wall along the Mexican border has quietly moved to the backburner in recent weeks, especially with the expiration of the Continuing Resolution looming on April 28, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has continued to receive proposals from numerous companies for what Trump's wall could look like. As we discussed previously, CBP has called for two designs, one made of concrete and one of alternative material, for a wall to be built across the nearly 2,000-mile border.
S&P futures are little changed at 6am ET, trading at 2347.55 and paring an earlier 0.4 percent drop, on the back of the USDJPY ramp which for the second day in a row has emerged alongside the European open, just as the key 110 support level appears in danger, soothing concerns about the Fed's balance sheet reduction and "some" Fed officials warning that stocks have gotten expensive.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has apparently decided she's not willing to take the chance of becoming the latest politician to fall victim to the same "Russian hacking" and "fake news" campaigns which 'undoubtedly' caused the downfall of America's liberal darling, Hillary Clinton (forget those pay-for-play scandals, federal record retention violations and willful non-compliance with Congressional subpeonas...total non-factors in the 2016 election).