Complacency Hits New Highs, VIX Sinks Again

Inverse Vix, XIV, is the best investment ever created–up 24% over the past two weeks. Having said that, volatility hit new lows today, as the market ripped to record highs.  This, of course, was a very predictable outcome.

Although not a fan of any of the volatility ETF products, now is a good time to hedge longs with VIX call options. We’re at a place in the VIX that has served as a bottoming congregating point for perverted VIX players. Some of their choice ETFs include UVXY, TVIX and of course VXX.

Three days ago, the day traders at the FDA put a hold on this drug, due to it killing a few people. Today, they removed it! How wonderful.

The co announced that the UFDA has removed the clinical hold on the Phase II clinical trial of JCAR015 (known as the “ROCKET” trial) in adult patients with relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r ALL). Under the revised protocol, the ROCKET trial will continue enrollment using JCAR015 with cyclophosphamide pre-conditioning only.

As a result, the stock is fucking soaring through the rafters. Perhaps someone had a sit down with the FDA about their ‘uninformed decision’ to erroneously and maliciously placing a clinical hold on such a drug? For JUNO shareholders, it’s a very good thing the fuckers at the FDA came to their senses (extra Joe Pesci).

JUNO is higher by 30% in the after hours.

Bond King, Jeff Gundlach, from Doubleline is giving a presentation this afternoon.

Here are a few of his key points.

-Leading economic indicators aren’t good

-He’s laughing at people who suggest commodities are in a bull market.

-Set up for 10yr bond is the worst he’s seen in his life. He wouldn’t be surprised if 10yr hit 1.70%

-Believes market will be weak tomorrow ahead of 30yr

-Doesn’t like risk reward of bonds here. Believes TLT and XLU can trade lower.

-Thinks wheat has more upside than bonds here.

-Fast Money traders are long LQD.

Meaningless drek.

File this under ‘what can go wrong’?

“If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our second amendment rights because there are other groups threatening to be there that are threatening to do harm to us,” Hashim Nzinga, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, told Reuters in an interview.

“If that state allows us to bear arms, the Panthers and the others who can legally bear arms will bear arms.”

Those devilish republicans. Maybe they will carry some guns too and they could reenact the civil war? (no racism)

I am very sorry to burden you with this drek. But it’s important that I inform the 0.0001% of you, who are still interested in these meaningless addendums to the boolish narrative, of this news.

Speculative high yield manure defaults surged to 5.1% in Q2, up from 4.4%, according to Moody’s–thanks in large part of overleveraged asshole energy companies.

These jackasses are missing debt payments, left and right, mainly because their core product, CRUDE, is crushed to pieces. Don’t tell Wall Street, however, as oil stocks are all the fucking rage these days, soaring by triple figures, applying figure four leg locks onto idiot short sellers–who clamor for blood.

Meanwhile, $50 billion in defaults have been surpassed, thus far, neatly surpassing last year’s hiccup of just $48.3. At this pace, markets will surge towards 20k and defaults will rise, in kind, to upwards of 90-fucking-billion by the end of 2016–according to some bitches at Fitch.

“Defaults are still on the rise,” Sharon Ou, senior credit officer at Moody’s, said in a phone interview. “The commodity-related sectors are still under distress.”

Fuck off, Sharon.

The worst has been priced in, apparently. Blue skies from here.

No criminal charges were filed against the good folks over at HSBC, after UK officials, led by G. Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent a letter to Dr. Benjamin Bernanke, requesting that enforcement against the British bank be suspended, indefinitely.

In the letter, Osborn warned that such a charge of money laundering against HSBC would imperil the world and they’d have “very serious implications for financial and economic stability, particularly in Europe and Asia”.

A mouth piece for our Justice Department said they weighed a series of meaningless things, when deciding to let the criminals at HSBC walk away, scot-free, including, but not exclusive to, ‘adverse consequences for innocent third parties, such as employees, customers, investors, pension holders and the public’.

In a Congressional report released today, it accused former US attorney general, Eric Holder, of lying to congress about the DOJ decision to let these horrible criminals be let off the hook. Holder declined to press charges due to HSBC’s ‘systematic importance’ to financial markets. Indeud.

“Rather than lacking adequate evidence to prove HSBC’s criminal conduct, internal Treasury documents show that DOJ [Department of Justice] leadership declined to pursue [the] recommendation to prosecute HSBC because senior DOJ leaders were concerned that prosecuting the bank ‘could result in a global financial disaster’,” the report said.

The 2012 settlement with HSBC detailed how the bank violated US sanctions by conducting business for customers in Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba. HSBC accounts were also used by the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico and Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia to launder $881m.

HSBC was fined $1.92b for their sins and all of the execs were given blow jobs by interns at the DOJ.

Robert Peck, long time bear on Netsuite, is out talking shit this afternoon–trying to ruin the party for everyone else. It’s quite sad, really. Peck and his soured grapes, dropping banana peels in the way of true entrepreneurs who are merely trying to profit from baseless rumors regarding a takeover of the company.

The stock, for lack of a better phrase, gives zero fucks what R. Peck has to say.

You’re quite the bear, Mr. Peck.

Dismiss the fate of the soon to be walled nation of Mexico at your own peril. If you’re not watching the peso-dollar cross, you’re committing grave and heinous injury to the risk management apparatus of your bullshit portfolios.

Although meaningless, the peso is the single best barometer of risk in EM, due to the liquidity of the Mexican currency. When things are deranged and the world plunges into a Mr. Hyde world, pesos are cast aside and kicked into sewers.

Today, on the joyous celebration of man, pesos are 0.85% higher v the dollar.

Truth be told, I am actively seeking chinks in the armor of this rally and can find none. Perhaps that’s the chink, the turning of bears into idle and docile market participants, ceding to the will of crazy fucking faced bulls.

In the interim, enjoy the fajitas. They’re being served hot today.

Copper has joined the league of shadows and has surged, now up more than 3%. The poster child for all things risk and copper, FCX, is following suit, now higher by a staggering 9%. BHP, RIO and SCCO are also doing well, but nothing compared to good olde leveraged Freeport.

On the other side of the mine, gold is getting hammered, now down 1.7%.

The pound is higher by more than 2.2% now and the yen weaker by 2%.

Crude continues to squeeze, now higher by 4.4%.

Considering markets have rallied for the past 8 days in a row, I’d say today’s run has the feel of a belligerent short squeeze being applied by cocaine addled junior fund managers getting the ok by their senior PMs, who are also coked out on a beach in St. Barts.

The conditions for an extended run higher have never been better, in my opinion. I only make these observations due to the large forex, bond and commodity moves, all of which are very bullish for stocks.

Leading the fray, the bedraggled price of crude. It’s off the 2 mo lows and sprinting higher, now up more than 3.5%.

This fervor has spilled over into an already strong oil sector, which is up greater than 6% today.

Should we bother to make sense of it all? Probably not. I’ve found that the more I think abount these things, the greater my head aches. I’d rather not have to worry about any of these things and just watch them unfold.

I’m in a 63% cash position, cowering from the sidelines, so all of this is theatre to me, frankly.