Via FactSet's Director of ETFs, Dave Nadig,
This week, the SEC gave us a belated Christmas present. But what does it actually portend?
The present in question is an 88-page "Research Note" from the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets titled "Equity Market Volatility on August 24, 2015." It's an innocuous-enough title, but for us market-structure wonks, it's kind of a big deal.
Just before the aborted Santa Rally took off in earnest, on December 23 the famous US economic growth prognosticators at the Atlanta Fed (famous because unlike Wall Street they actually are right) slashed its Q4 GDP forecast from 1.9% to 1.3% citing weakness in real consumer spending and poor existing-home sales.
Led by a 4.3% collapse in Germany's DAX index, European Stocks plunged 2.5% today which is the worst start to a year ever. European credit markets spiked higher in risk. 10Y bund yields tumbled over 6bps and peripheral sovereign risk spreads jumped 10-15bps. Not a good start for Draghi and his pals...
Germany led the collapse...
Which has driven Stoxx 600 - the broadest European stock index - down over 2.5% for its worst start to a year ever!!
Charts: Bloomberg
Despite a bloodbath in US equities, gun stocks are soaring this morning (Smith & Wesson up 7% and Sturm, Ruger up 3%) as ABC News reports, as we detailed yesterday:
With the Oregon standoff continuing, it appears "the world's greatest gun sales-man" has done it again.
From an escalating crisis in Saudi/Iranian relations to crashing markets in China, the prospects for peace and prosperity in the new year seem dim.