S&P

Hurricane Harvey has unleashed unparalleled devastation on southwest Texas, flooding Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, and many towns along the Gulf coast from Galveston, to Port Lavaca and beyond. But even Harvey’s 130 mph winds aren’t strong enough to threaten the ironclad balance sheets of America’s largest insurers, which have amassed a “fatter-than-ever” capital cushion capable of absorbing any payouts related to what looks to be, by several measures, one of the worst hurricane in US history, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Back in April, we showed that according to a Goldman Sachs report, the current run of chronic active manager underperformance began shortly after the launch of QE in 2009.

As discussed earlier today by Matt King in his report on "one-way" markets resulting from QE and ETFs, this period has been marked by "stubbornly low volatility and dispersion", something Goldman first observed four months ago:

Which brings us to what we concluded back in April in "Dear Hedge Funds: This Is Who Is Responsible For Your Deplorable Returns", namely that:

The dollar today...

Summarizing the week's moves: Dollar dump sparks buying binge in bonds, bullion, and stocks (but sinks FANG Stocks)

And this was what happened in FX markets...

While FundStrat's Tom Lee has not been banned from ESPN, he may well be banished from mainstream business media as not only is he bullish Bitcoin, and the S&P's most-bearish strategist (target 2,275 year-end), he is now calling for a 5% correction in stocks as market breadth collapses...

The paradox of the US stock market continued for yet another week, because according to Bank of America citing EPFR data with the S&P effectively at record highs, US equity funds have suffered their longest outflows streak in 13 years, as investors pulled out another $2.6 from US stocks in the week ending Wednesday. That brings total outflows since late June to $30 billion, as investors allocated $36 billion to the rest of the world.