To sum up: China car sales crash by most on record (boom goes the overseas growth meme), US existing home sales plunge most in 6 years (boom goes the domestic housing strength supporting consumption meme), Williams and Lockhart go full hawk-tard (positing April as "live" and suggesting everything is hawkishly awesome), and one of our most succeesful 'innovative' tech firms unveils the worst product launch ever... and investors buy stocks with both hands and feet...
Futures show the flip-floppiness of the day best...A ramp in the afternoon session of China (thanks to eased margin requirements) which gave way as Europe traded weak then was slammed by Fed's Williams "April live" comments... a ramp back into the US open was then slammed by crappy housing data... which the machines ramped into Europe's close... Then Fed's Lockhart reiterated "April live" warnings but early weakness just spurred USDJPY to ignite momentum in stocks to overnight high stops...
Leaving Nasdaq the winner as cash equities rallied into the European close and sold off after NYMEX close despite extended gains from oil...
Post-Fed, things are back to normal as they should be... stocks #winning over gold and bonds... (buty silver is still in the lead)
AAPL disappointed...
It appears last week's apparent "QE Trade" - buy stocks, buy bonds, buy gold, sell USDs - is fading...
Treasury yields rose 4-5bps on the day with some modest steepening...(japanese markets on holiday) Notice that the buying was between US open and EU close..
The USD gained ground for the 2nd day ion a row - best gain in March...
Commodities dropped as China closed, rallied into US open, then flatlined...
But once again Crude was up and down faster than a whore's drawers...
Charts: Bloomberg