And the choppy trade on Wall St continues as the tussle between the bulls and bears resulted in 700 pt down in the early hours of trade after the release of the hideous 6.6m unemployment claims data offset by 700 pts gain shortly after but gradually declined 700 pts thereafter and regaining back all the 700 pts in the last 2 trading hours possibly in response to POTUS greater push to ensure safety of the American people. And what is that? WEAR YOUR MASK.
Similar volatility happen in the crude oil market following a twit from the President about an imminent supply cut deal which proved to be misguided.
Gold is back on the back of the horror unemployment claims.
So with the ASX showing a small loss yesterday when the Dow had a horror day before, just what will it do today , a counter-trend again ? I have stopped figuring out the day to day gyrations , preferring to put on the lens on what is likely to transpire ahead. Trump Sparks "Sh*tshow" In Black-Gold As Bullion Demand Soars To 3-Year Highs
by Zero Hedge
Thu, 04/02/2020 - 16:00
Two things were "unprecedented" today... America's labor market collapse and global oil markets' surge in price.
Just shy of 10 million Americans have signed up for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks... quite an outlier historically...
Source: Bloomberg
For oil traders, it was the worst of times (biggest quarterly loss ever) and the best of times (today's manic jawboning and denials prompted the single-best daily gain for crude ever)... All thanks to President Trump's apparent lying tweet of an imminent supply-cut deal. Saxo's Ole Hanson summed things up nicely as Trump triggered everyone's stops...
Ole S Hansen@Ole_S_Hansen
I'm normally a very calm person but Trump just created a sh-show in the #oil market which many will loose from. That false rally just sucked in a lot of fresh retail money from traders desperate join the uptrend. It will come but not yet. #OOTT
The 24.7% rise is the largest daily gain for WTI ever (and at one point Brent rose a stunning 47% intraday)...BUT let's put that in context... Source: Bloomberg
US equity markets were volatile intraday, but thanks to a late-day surge (seemingly triggered by the ventilator DPA) all ended green, led by S&P and Dow...
Futures show the chaos best though as the frightening labor data sparked a market puke into the cash open, which dip-buyer manically bought...
Despite the mixed picture in indices, the Virus-Fear trade is reaccelerating... Source: Bloomberg
"Most Shorted" Stocks fell for the 5th day in a row... Source: Bloomberg
Fun-durr-mentals... Source: Bloomberg
High-yield bond algos triggered in Trump's oil deal comments... but that faded rapidly...
Treasury yields were marginally higher today pushing 30Y back to unchanged on the week... Source: Bloomberg
10Y yields popped back above 60bps... Source: Bloomberg
The Dollar drifted higher again today... Source: Bloomberg
Cryptos spiked today (but fell back after that panic-buying) back into the green for the week... Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin spiked above $7200, back to 4-week highs...
Source: Bloomberg
Commodities were all higher on the day (despite dollar gains) with oil the outlier... Source: Bloomberg
Gold spiked on the terrible jobless data (more helicopter money?)...
Notably, gold futures and spot have started to decouple once again (as physical shortages rear their ugly head again)... Source: Bloomberg
Finally, Gold coins sold by the U.S. Mint were snapped up in March at the fastest pace in over three years as investors flocked to the haven metal amid the coronavirus pandemic. Source: Bloomberg
As Bloomberg reports, by the end of the month, investors had purchased142,000 ounces of American Eagle coins, the most since late 2016. With so much retail demand, dealers are charging premiums for bullion -- and even offering to pay more than spot prices to clients willing to part with their gold bars and coins.
