It will be fitting, not to mention symmetric, if stocks which yesterday closed at 7 weeks lows and red for the year, end the week the same way they started it: with a rally on no news, just more hopes that oil (which as recently as two years ago none other than Chair Yellen said said would be be "unambiguously good" if lower) will continue rising.
After two violently volatile days in which the market soared (Monday) then promptly retraced all gains (Tuesday), the overnight session has been relatively calm with futures and oil both unchanged even as the BBG dollar index rose to the highest level since April 4. This took place despite a substantial amount of macro data from both Japan, where the GDP came well above the expected 0.3%, instead printing 1.7% annualized, which pushed stocks lower as it meant the probability of more BOJ interventions or a delay of the sales tax hike both dropped.
Over the past several months, a recurring topic about Japan's economy has been whether Abe would delay Japan's planned consumption tax due in April 2017.
One month ago, when we updated on the performance of Horseman Global, what until recently was the world's most bearish hedge fund with a record net short exposure of -98%...
... at least until Icahn Enterprises emerged with its even more gargantuan -149% net short...
... we cited fund CIO Russell Clark who observed the fund's dramatic -9.6% drop in the month of March, and made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere because he was confident that the move was nothing but a short squeeze, which - if anything - made Clark even more bearish.
"Symbolizing how far the United States and Japan have come in building a deep and abiding alliance based on mutual interests, shared values and an enduring spirit of friendship between our people," according to The White House official statement, The Hill reports that Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, later this month. Is this merely continuing Obama's apology tour?