S&P 500

Just as US equity futures were about to roll over following some very substantial misses yesterday by the likes of Google, Microsoft, Starbucks and a plunge in Visa shares, overnight who came to the markets' rescue but the BOJ, when shortly after midnight Bloomberg reported that "according to people familiar with talks at the BOJ" which is the traditional keyword for a BOJ source testing out the market's reaction, Japan's central bank may "help" local banks to lend by offering a negative rate on some loans.

Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via FirstRebuttal.com,

When people stop trusting a market they stop using that market.  Trust is at near 20 year lows.  The conundrum is that as volumes decline it becomes ever easier for price insensitive participants to manipulate the market only furthering the distrust.  This first three charts depict the deterioration of volumes and capital outflows in the face of a ‘7 year bull’.  A hard to explain phenomenon.

Raw Price to Monthly Volume:

And the capital outflows….

Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,

Who’s afraid of the big bad bear?  No one, it seems.

 

From Mike O'Rourke at Jones Trading

The Most Crowded Trade in History

Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,

Dismal Earnings, Extreme Valuations

The current earnings season hasn’t been very good so far. Companies continue to “beat expectations” of course, but this is just a silly game. The stock market’s valuation is already between the highest and third highest in history depending on how it is measured.