So after the biggest inflows to SPY in 27 months sending stocks soaring on dropping volume and plunging GDP expectations, today saw Stocks Down, Bonds Down, Gold Down, VIX Down, USD Up, Rate Hike Odds Up...
But it was all so easy yesterday!
At exactly 1130ET (as Europe closed), someone decided to unload over $2 billion notional of silver into the futures pits...
Over 23,000 Silver futures contracts suddenly puked into the market as soon as Europe closed...
Silve rhad managed to get back most of the losses post-election but once the selling broke 18.155 (200DMA) it accelerated...this is the biggest drop since The Fed hiked rates in December.
Gold is also getting hit but far less aggressively...
Donald Trump may soon find himself on the receiving end of a "visa war" that could have dire consequences for trans-Atlantic travel and European tourism. On Thuesday, EU lawmakers voted to force Americans to apply for visas when traveling to Europe in response to Washington refusing to allow all Europeans to travel to the States visa-free.
Can Truth Prevail?
Paul Craig Roberts
According to official US economic data, the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has expanded for 22 quarters, raising real GDP 12.1% above its high prior to the 2008-09 economic contraction. Yet, US manufacturing output and US industrial production have not recovered to their pre-contraction high.
So what is driving the real GDP growth? In my opinion, the rise in real GDP is an illusion produced by the under-measurement of inflation.
The currency markets are signalling that a massive shift might be about to happen.
According to a Bank of America/ Merrill Lynch fund manager survey, the US Dollar ($USD) is the single most crowded trade on the planet.
In a fiat world, the value of a given currency is based on where it trades relative to other currencies. In the case of the $USD, the Euro comprises 56% of the basket of currencies against which the $USD is valued.
Put another way, whatever happens to the Euro will effectively trigger an inverse reaction in the $USD.