Gold Rose Another 10% In February – Best Month Since January 2012
Gold bullion rose 10.1% in February adding to the 7% gains seen in January. This means that gold is the best performing asset this year, up 17% so far in 2016. Silver is the next best performing asset with an 8% gain year to date, followed by US Treasuries (30 Year Bond) which have gained 7.8% so far in 2016.
With markets happy to put February in the history books because it marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in global stocks, we move on to March 1st, which doubles down as 'Super Tuesday' in the US when Trump's presidential candidacy will almost certainly be sealed and a day in which stocks decided to join the super fun by super surging overnight on nothing but bad global macro and economic which however was promptly ignored and instead the focus was on ongoing central bank intervention and even more jawboning.
In our overnight wrap moments ago, when previewing today's action, we said that "absent some dramatic reversal, such as Gartman covering his shorts and going unexpectedly long, expect the low-volume, upward momentum to continue into the G-20 weekend." Well, as the bible says, ask and ye shall receive.
In Gartman's just released note, we learn that the recurring Fast Money guest has indeed finally thrown in the towel, and after putting on S&P shorts at 1926 some time ago, has finally capitulated with the market once again going sharply against him. To wit:
Whether this week's market surge was catalyzed by two consecutive "technical problems" in the bond market, first the unexpected failure of the Fed's MBS POMO on Wednesday and then the 7 Year Treasury auction's last minute cancellations yesterday, and quite clearly it was...
... is irrelevant as the short squeeze has not only returned with a vengeance...
... but the critical 1,950 resistance and 50 DMA in the S&P500 was taken out...
After a burst of volatility in the developed market over the past month, one odd outlier was China, where after a surge of gut-wrenching moves in both its currency and equity markets (recall that it was China's troubles with marketwide circuit breakers at the start of January that may have catalyzed the global volatility wave), Chinese stocks remained relatively quiet and resilient, levitating quietly day after day. That all changed overnight when the Shanghai Composite plunged by 6.4% with the drop accelerating into the close.