NASDAQ 100

S&P futures have tracked both European and Asian markets lower, which were dragged down by the big EPS miss and guidance cut reported by Amazon on Thursday. Meanwhile, the pounding of the dollar has resumed with the euro and sterling strengthening against the dollar due to renewed political concerns after this morning's stunning failure by the Senate GOP to pass a "skinny" Obamacare repeal after John McCain sided with democrats.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

The levitation continues with S&P futures pointing to - what else - another higher open while European stocks swung between gains and losses on the busiest earnings days of the year (85 of the Stoxx 600 report) which has seen European pharma giant AstraZeneca plunge 15%, the most on record, after its flagship lung cancer trial Mystic failed to show benefits, while Deutsche Bank slumped 4% on a 12% plunge in FICC revenue.

With all eyes on the market's traditional risk measure - VIX, tracking the forward-looking view of S&P 500 volatility - and the ever-higher prices of Tech stocks, a funny thing happened under the surface that is starting to worry some...

As S&P 'VIX' enedlessly limps lower, implied equity volatility for Tech stocks has been rising for two months...

After sliding to 3 month lows on "car cartel" concerns yesterday, European stocks have rebounded after three days of declines, while oil extended gains after Saudi export cuts, with Brent rising above $49 and WTI just shy of $47. Asian stocks fell while S&P futures rose 0.2% to 2,473, putting yesterday's GOOGL drop on plunging Costs-Per-Click in the rearview mirror.