Breakouts galore in U.S. equity indices! The S&P 500 large cap index broke out to a new all-time high on July 11th, and has since made several more highs. The breakout came after having gone sideways since essentially February 2015 … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of August 2, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Mixed messages from two major central banks! On Friday last week, Haruhiko Kuroda, BoJ governor, decided not to live up to markets’ lofty … Continued
U.S. corporate bond issuance totaled $99.7 billion in July, down 25.9 percent year-over-year. Of this, investment-grade was $85.2 billion, down 32.1 percent y/y and high-yield $14.5 billion, up 62.2 percent. The growth rate put up by high-yield is misleading as … Continued
A crucial test probably lies ahead for the S&P 500 large cap index (Chart 1). The index, trapped in a sideways pattern since essentially February last year, broke out nearly a month ago – potentially a huge development, with the … Continued
U.S. stocks have done phenomenally well since the February lows. In less than six months through the intra-day high yesterday, the S&P 500 large cap index has rallied north of 20 percent, the Nasdaq 100 index 22.5 percent, and the … Continued
July turned out to be an important month for the S&P 500 large cap index. More than a year after it peaked in May last year, the index reached a new high, rising 3.6 percent for the month. The July … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of July 26, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The Fed stopped short of signaling a rate hike near term. That said, the statement also said “near-term risks to the economic outlook … Continued
NYSE margin debt fell again. June was down $3.8 billion month-over-month to $447.4 billion. Since it peaked in April last year at $507.2 billion, margin debt is now down $59.8 billion – or 11.8 percent from the peak. The S&P … Continued
Much ado about nothing! Pretty much. There was much talk of short squeeze primarily contributing to the rally in stocks in the June 30-July 15 period, but, as it turns out, at least on an index level, that was not … Continued
In the August expiration, the amount of call open interest in VIX heavily outweighs that of puts. Put open interest, represented by the red bars in Chart 1, is decent in near-the-money or slightly-in-the-money strikes, but pale in comparison to … Continued