S&P 500

it has been a rather quiet session, which saw Japan modestly lower dragged again by a lower USDJPY which hit fresh 17 month lows around 170.6 before staging another modest rebound and halting a six-day run of gains; China bounced after a slightly disappointing CPI print gave hope there is more space for the PBOC to ease; European equities rose, led by Italian banks which surged ahead of a meeting to discuss the rescue of various insolvent Italian banks, while mining stocks jumped buoyed by rising metal prices with signs of a pick-up in Chinese industrial demand.

After four consecutive quarters of declining EPS for the S&P (including the estimated 9% plunge in Q1 earnings) is it time to declare victory over the global earnings recession? Here is the answer according to Morgan Stanley's Jonathan Garner.

Has the Global Earnings Recession Finished?

We think it's too soon to declare that the global earnings recession has finished and remain neutral equities in our asset allocation framework.

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

You have to wonder whether there are any carbon units left in the casino. The robo traders and HFTs, of course, have an attention span of 10 milliseconds. So their utter lack of concern about context, fundamentals and history is readily explainable. They never get around to it.

Submitted by Bill Bonner of Bonner & Partners (annotated by Acting-Man.com's Pater Tenebrarum),

No Return to Normal

Overall, world stocks have held up well, despite cascading evidence of impending doom.

Just as we explained in this morning's wrap, today was all about keeping The S&P 500 in the green year-to-date...

Because nothing says "efficient" markets like nine VIX-smash-based "rescues" of S&P 500 from the confidence-crushing perils of a red close year-to-date...

And how was today's "save" achieved... the good old VIX smash...AGAIN!