‘Bad News’ Is Bad News For Stocks, Bonds, Crypto, & Gold

A lof of macro bad news… Softer-than-expected Retail Sales, hotter-than-expected Producer Prices, Jobless Claims up (from dramatically revised-down levels)… sending rate-cut expectations lower…

Source: Bloomberg

…and tomorrow’s big OpEx gamma unclenching left the ‘bad news is good news’ narrative in the dust, wiping the smiles off many faces…

Bond yields were higher – notably higher – with the long-end significantly underperforming on the day (30Y +10bps,  2Y +5bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

That left 10Y yields back up near their highs of the year…

Source: Bloomberg

And for the second day in a row – higher yields mattered for long-duration stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

Small Caps were monkeyhammered lower today (as were all the majors). Today was the biggest RTY underperformance relative to NQ in a month. A late-day panic-melt-up put some lipstick on an otherwise pg of a day…

Banks were buggered, erasing all the post-NYCB bailout gains…

Another down-day for NVDA!! That’s 4 straight days without a new record high…

Meme stocks and unprofitable tech were dumped…

Source: Bloomberg

‘Most Shorted’ stocks tumbled once again (with no squeeze attempt at all)…

Source: Bloomberg

VIX topped 15 again today…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks remain in a world of their own compared to Fed expectations…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar soared today – its best day in a month – retracing all the pre-payrolls slide…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was clubbed like a bay seal back below $70,000 (with no bounce yet)..

Source: Bloomberg

After another big ETF inflow day yesterday…

Source: Bloomberg

Once again, it was the perps that spanked crypto lower…

Ethereum was also hit hard today, back at two-week lows, below $3800 as the Dencun upgrade completed successfully…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar’s gains were gold’s losses…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices extended their gains to the highest since Nov 6th (WTI back above $81)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, as you’re re-mortgaging the house to pile into more levered bets on NVDA, one thing to bear in mind is that more companies have defaulted around the world since January than in any start to the year since the financial crisis, according to rating agency S&P Global.

This year’s tally of corporate defaults stands at 29, the highest year-to-date count since the 36 recorded during the same period in 2009, according to S&P. There have been 17 defaults in the US, with eight in Europe. The average number of defaults for the same period in the years 2010-23 was slightly more than 16, according to the S&P data.