Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,
Tuesday’s spasm of machine rage begs a question. After the S&P 500 has chopped sideways for 600 days in no man’s land either side of 2060, and given the baleful headwinds now gathering from all points in the global economy, there is absolutely no reason to stay in the casino.
Following last week's Sohn Conference, where the overarching theme was one of prevailing bearishness topped by Stanley Druckenmiller's near-apocalyptic forecast that only gold will be left standing after all confidence evaporates in the "magic people" known as central bankers, yesterday some 1,800 hedge fund industry executives gathered in Las Vegas at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference or SALT, where the prevalent concern about the future of the world continued, driven primarily by worries about China.
If yesterday's selloff had a specific catalyst, namely some of the worst consumer retail earnings seen in years, it merely undid the Tuesday rally which levitated global risk with no fundamental driver, aside for a 200 pip spike in the USDJPY. Some central bankers may even say it was a "magical" levitation.
With the recent rally showing increasing signs of exhaustion and the market topping, traders have begun to wonder if the S&P500 will suffer the same fate in the coming months as it did in August 2015, and - more apropos - in December, when the S&P failed to make a new high before starting a more significant correction leg into January.
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,