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Stocks Shrug Off Dismal Data, Hawkish Fed; 'Animal Spirits' Soar To Record High

Reflecting on the week - a week that saw 7 Fed speakers go full hawktard and drive rate hike odds at a pace never seen before, a week in which hard data tumbled to pre-election lows as 'soft' surveys all hit record highs, a week in which Small Cap stocks tumbled red (but but but they're domestic focused) as bank stocks soared, a week in which The Dow spiked to 21,100 on the back of the biggest retail ETF inflows in 3 years, and a week that saw a virtual currency's price top gold's for the firs time ever - we thought this was appropriate... (NSFW!!)

 

Animal Spirits (the gap between hope for the future and the current reality) has never been higher...

Year-to-Date, Gold still leads the major asset classes (bonds unchanged) but bank stocks are beating precious metals...

 

Dow up for the 5th week of the last 6 - perfectly glued to 21,000; Small Caps managed to scramble to unchanged for the week...

 

VIX was crushed to a 10 handle in order to keep the Dow 21,000 Dream Alive...

 

Financials were best on the week (with Staples and Utes lower)...

 

But Deutsche Bank was damaged...

 

A big short squeeze after Trump's address to congress and that was it...

 

The Dollar's best week of 2017 - but som every odd price action, especially after the hawkish spech by Yellen...

 

Euro was the week's best performer, Loonie worst among the majors...

 

Gold's worst week of 2017 and Silver's worst week of 2017, even with modest bounce back this afternoon... Crude's biggest weekly drop since mid-Jan

 

Notably the other fear index improved this week as the global USD-XXX basis swap shifted higher bythe most since Dec 2015 (rate hike)...

 

Yields rose across the entire complex this week... (but the curve notably flattened) - long bond outperformed...

 

30Y Yield's biggest weekly spike since the election (twice tagging 3.10% today before fading back lower after Yellen (not what one would have expected on the hawkish tone)..

 

2Y Yield's biggest weekly spike since Nov 2015 (before the telegraphed Dec rate hike)

Fed Funds Futures biggest weekly drop since June 2015...

 

As rate hike hopes soared to 96%...

 

The Mexican peso rallied for the 4th of the last 6 weeks, erasing most of its weakness post-Trump (helped today by Wilbur Ross' comments).

 

Bitcoin soared to a new record high at $1292 (up 6 of the last 7 weeks and up 17 of the last 22 weeks) surpassing the price of an ounce of gold for the first time...

 

Finally if Yellen was so hawkish, then explain this...