Silver Soars; Stock Bores; Bond Bulls Heading For The Doors

Aside from an opening short-squeeze that saw 'most-shorted' stocks surge 0.8% in the first 15 minutes of the day, stocks did very little for the rest of the day. Ranges were extremely narrow with whatever lift stocks got based on small AUDJPY (carry) sparks but the Dow and S&P end the day red (Nasdaq and Russell 2000 green). Nasdaq was driven by AAPL exuberance (what no a new iPhone model??) which grabbed the Tech sector to the best peformance on the day. Utes were the biggest losers as rates reversed early gains and Treasury yields (especially 30Y) surged 6-7 bps from their per-open low yields. The big story was precious metals as Silver and Gold surged on the day. Silver is now up over 9% in the last 3 days - its best run in 22 months. Interestingly, VIX was pushed notably lower on the day (but it appears investors are moving hedges further out in time - to September). Credit notably underperformed. Today was all about pre- and post-Europe (as normal).

Most-Shorted stocks surged at the open (providing the momentum ignition ammo) but volume was deathly and.. (correction the green is the Russell 3000)

stocks went nowhere from the open...

FX markets were volatile with AUD and JPY in charge...

and Bonds were battered...

Silver surged (as did Gold)...

and gold rose also into the US open. Interestingly given all the ongoing hoopla over Chinese trade and growth... Copper and Oil did nothing...

Some notable protection extension into the close...

Charts: Bloomberg

Bonus Chart: Yet another rumor-driven spike for JCP that enables a few more million shares to be unloaded by the professionals...