The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

Following Friday’s expiration volume that was the 3rd lowest of the year (consolidated NYSE), today is on track to be slightly below even Friday. Today will also be the 3rd Monday in a row where the week started out with a bang based on the ‘easy for longer, short $, buy stocks trade.’ Two weeks ago we followed the G20 meeting with a Monday 2%+ rise in the S&P 500 with no further gains the rest of that week. One week ago we rallied 1.5% after the APEC in Asia said their stimulus plans won’t end anytime soon but by weeks end, that gain was given up as the US$ caught a bid. This says nothing about how the rest of the week will end but it remains clear, investment decisions are being made solely due to the direction of the US$. Tomorrow the papers will say, ‘stocks rally after home sales data,’ but the S&P’s are at the same level as they were at 9:30am due to the Fed comments which induced the weak $.