Ignore the rout in retail, focus on FANG… and hope for some dovish cooing from Yellen…

Expectations for higher VIX uncertainty (VVIX – VIX of VIX) are at their highest relative to VIX since Dec 2006…

h/t @Schuldensuehner

Which just happened to mark the beginning of the end of the great moderation and the start of chaos in VIX…

Small Caps hovered near unch after ramping back from early losses but Nasdaq was exuberant…Everything weakened in the afternoon into the close…The Dow ended almost perfectly unch…

Everyone buying ahead of earnings… though we’re not sure why…

VIX was pushed back to down a 10 handle again, ramping Nasdaq above last Monday’s high stops…

With FANG stocks jumping above their 50DMA…

SNAP traded below its IPO price…

While tech outperformed, Retail stocks were dumped…

Tesla (TSLA ) was higher pre-open, tumbled into and beyond the close, ripped back to close green

While stocks were positive, bonds were also bid today…the initial gains came when Europe opened…

The Dollar Index pumped overnight (again as Europe opened) and dumped as the US day session began, to end the day lower…

Crude was ugly early on Russia headlines then ramped back on nothing…

As Oil fell so gold was also smacked lower… but like everything else today it seems, was v-shaped recovery bid…

Silver had its best day in a month… after a few days of bloodbathery…

Some violent moves today.

Finally – it’s happening again – ‘Soft’ survey data is getting hopeful as ‘hard’ reality is stagnant… it never ended well for hope…