“We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late.”

That’s from Libya’s National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Moammar Qaddafi.

If history is any guide - the mysterious flash crash "signal" that we have seen yet again in VIX suggests stocks rally and VIX tumbles into the close today:

We have seen these spike moves before and more often than not they have signaled future extreme tests for VIX - and in this case, that means stocks ramp.

Keep an eye on momentum ignition around 3:30pm. That said, both credit, crude and the USD are ugly for now on the heels of the "close calling" Fed which clearly has no idea why it hiked in December, but had to hike nonetheless.

The FOMC Minutes hardly rang loudly and proudly of the strong economy that warrants rate hikes... and crude is tumbling.

Last month, in what will likely be viewed in hindsight as an ill-fated attempt to begin the long and painful process of normalizing monetary policy, the Fed "went there." Janet Yellen raised rates. 

Investors were meant to take solace in the FOMC's use of the term "gradual" to describe the trajectory for rates going forward, as well as from the apparent unanimity, but as is becoming more clear with each passing week, "liftoff" was a policy mistake and may well go down as the worst timed rate hike in history. 

Since The December 16th FOMC decision to hike rates, Gold is up over 2%, Bonds up 1%, and stocks down 3% suggesting the word "error" with regard Fed policy. As The FOMC Minutes are released, traders anticipate confident-hawkishness and a focus on ignoring current data in favor of preferring their own confident outlook: