Stocks went into reverse this week. All major US equity indices were lower this week (despite a late-day, OPEX-week, panic bid ramp).

Chinese stocks were also broadly lower on the week.

Most of the European majors were higher on the week, except UK’s FTSE.

Nasdaq underperformed notably on the day. Futures show the overnight dip when McMaster headlines hit. (NOTE – look at the idiotic panic bid, then puke into the close.)

The Dow is back in the red for March.

The Dow managed to scramble back above its 50% retracement level today, but the jaws of the trendlines are closing in one way or the other.

Bank stocks were all down on the week (led by a 3% drop in Citi) but of most note is the round trip from Friday’s payrolls spike.

VIX ended the week higher (but drifted lower the last couple of days into OPEX).

Investors sold the short-end of the Treasury curve this week (2y Yield up 3bps) but the rest of the curve was bid (with some selling on Friday after IP beat).

Breakevens fell notably on the week also.

While the yield curve steepened a little today, on the week it flattened dramatically to a fresh cycle (Oct 2007) low…the 12bps flattening in s2s30s is the second biggest in 4 months.

The Dollar Index managed to scratch out its 4th weekly gain in a row (reversing as China’s new year holiday ended).

The Russian Ruble fell notably – 2nd biggest weekly drop since July 2017.

The gains in the dollar weighed on gold, silver, and copper but crude snapped higher today (for no good reason), jumping into the green for the week.

Quite a stop-run in the energy complex.

Another ugly week for cryptos, though today saw a brief buying panic.

Finally, we note that Gold remains the only asset-class to have normalized post-February fiasco.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email