06Feb2018 Market Close: Wall Street Rallies After Whipsaw Session, Dow Suffers Wild Swings, Recovers 567 Points After Historic Sell-off, Gold Index Trends Down, Disney Earnings Beat: $1.89 Per Share, Vs Expected EPS Of $1.61

Written by Gary

US stocks posted sharp gains in another wild trading session today (+2.0%), as indexes rebounded from the biggest one-day drops for the S&P 500 and the Dow in more than six years that had stalled the market’s record run on Monday.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall St. rallies after whipsaw session NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks posted sharp gains in another wild trading session on Tuesday, as indexes rebounded from the biggest one-day drops for the S&P 500 and the Dow in more than six years that had stalled the market’s record run on Monday.
	U.S. regulators may ask Congress for virtual currency legislation WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators may ask Congress to pass legislation to improve oversight of virtual currencies like bitcoin amid concerns about the risks posed by the emerging asset class, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.
	Dividend plays on slippery ground as bond yields steepen (Reuters) – After a decade of easy-money policy that cut bond yields to almost nothing and lifted U.S. stock markets to records, companies that pay big dividends now look among the most exposed as Federal Reserve interest rate rises pull returns on government debt higher.
	Stock sell-off overdue, investors lick their wounds and hunt The speed of Monday’s jaw-dropping sell-off on Wall Street had traders and investors bumped and bruised. But few seemed surprised that a pullback had actually happened. Some were looking for the right time and opportunity to wade back in – but wary of catching a falling knife.
	Bitcoin rebounds from three-month low in volatile trade NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin recovered from three-month lows below $6,000 in choppy trading on Tuesday, but worries lingered about a global regulatory clampdown and moves by banks to ban buying bitcoin with credit cards.
	Apple sees ‘strong demand’ for replacement iPhone batteries: letter WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc has seen “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries and may offer rebates for consumers who paid full price for new batteries, the company said in a Feb. 2 letter to U.S. lawmakers made public on Tuesday.
	Treasury’s Mnuchin says he wants answers on Equifax breach WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday said he wants to know how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is handling a probe into a hack of credit bureau Equifax Inc after a report that the agency’s acting director had pulled back from investigating the matter.
	Icahn calls U.S. stock nosedive ‘rumblings of an earthquake’: CNBC NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn warned on Tuesday that investors have exposure to “way too many derivatives” and called the stock market’s nosedive just “rumblings of an earthquake.”
	A soft-spoken Kalanick, ex-Uber CEO, testifies in U.S. car secrets trial SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Former Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick testified at a high-stakes trial on Tuesday and publicly addressed for the first time allegations by Alphabet Inc’s Waymo that Uber stole its self-driving car technology.
	Volmageddon Sparks 6000-Pt Swings In The Dow As Liquidity Evaporates Full Court Press from the media today to ensure bag-holders stay in… So, first things first, the total catastrophe that is the Inverse VIX ETF XIV dropped 90% in after-hours trading, triggering its termination event… And then when it re-opened, it crashed some more before squeezing higher (remember it will be at $4.22 on Feb 20th, no matter what happens in between)… And in yet another example of the market’s sheer idiocy, this short-squeeze sent The Dow up 600 points… VIX traded above 50 overnight before going dead, crashing, ramping, a …
	XIV Trader Loses $4 Million And 3 Years Of Work Overnight: Here Is His Story The devastating 90% overnight collapse in the now “terminated” XIV Exchange Traded Note (ETN) has had many casualties – from one hedge fund down as much as 65%, to Morgan Stanley’s (formerly) $39 million position, to Reddit user /u/Lilkanna who posted “Ive lost 4million USD, 3 years worth of work, and other people’s money” in the “TradeXIV” subreddit. “1.5 mill was capital I raised from investors who believed in me,” Lilkanna wrote. “I had a leveraged position I used DTBP to buy and it was down like 1% and I thought I could hold it knowing that I would get a reg-t call deadline in 2 days.” As confirmation of his woes, Lilkanna posted a screenshot of his depleted account:
	Steele Goes Dark; Ditches London Court Appearance Following Criminal Referral By US Senate ï»¿Former British MI-6 intelligence officer Christopher Steele was a no-show on Monday at a London courthouse, reports Fox News. Steele was expected for a long-requested deposition in a multi-million dollar civil case brought against Buzzfeed, which published a salacious and unverified “Trump-Russia” dossier. Steele may have skipped out over concerns that he would be asked questions about his contacts with various media outlets in connection with at least two dossiers he had a hand in assembling and disseminating – for which he stands accused by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) of misleading the FBI about his contacts with journalists at various news outlets during the 2016 election. “There is substantial evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele materially misled the FBI about a key aspect of his dossier efforts, one which bears on his credibility,” reads the unredacted document that refers Steele for criminal prosecution in the US. 12) The Issue at Ha …
	Here Is What Was Behind The “Largest VIX Buy Order In History” Less than a month ago, Goldman Sachs presciently published a note research report “VIX ETPs are now net short vega – should we worry”… …. which as the title suggested showed that the net position of VIX ETPs has become short over the past few weeks, for only the second time in their eight year history. This odd finding – namely that the VIX ETPs had shifted their traditional vol bias from long to short – prompted the Goldman strategist to ask glibly “Should we worry?” Less than a month later we have the answer: Yes, Goldman, you should worry, because the historic short squeeze that took place overnight in VIX, which sent it over 100% higher – the biggest jump in history – was precisely a result of this Goldman observation, namely that ETPs were now aggressively shorting vol.
	How the Bull Market’s Greatest Trade Went Bust A record increase in volatility blew up a trade that had been among the most lucrative of the entire bull market—betting the market would get calmer and stay calm.
	Market Plunge Lays Bare the Peril of ‘FOMO’ The only thing investors have to fear, Franklin Delano Roosevelt might have said, is the fear of missing out. As investors struggle to grasp the recent sell-off, it is worth taking a look at popular recent advice.
	For Banks, This Volatility Is Too Much Banking stocks have been hit along with everything else the past couple days. Are investors making a mistake?
	December 2017 Headline JOLTS Job Openings Decline Written by Steven Hansen The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) can be used as a predictor of future jobs growth, and the predictive elements show that the year-over-year growth rate of unadjusted private non-farm job openings again declined. The headline view also shows a decline.
	Trump Today: Trump Today: President threatens government shutdown if Democrats don’t support his immigration plan President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’d “love” to see a government shutdown if Democrats don’t back his immigration proposals, as he used an NFL player’s death to push for tougher border security.
	You want a fancy story for why the stock market skidded and then climbed? It’s actually pretty simple If the stock market goes up 20% a whole bunch of years in a row, the higher the probability is that it’s unsustainable.
	Market Extra: Why the Dow Jones Industrial Average has suddenly become a hot mess A prolonged period of market calm has come to an abrupt halt on Wall Street. What’s next for the stock market and what caused it?