Equities Stumble As VIX Term Structure Keeps Steepening

S&P 500 futures (ES) ended practically unchanged (though cash was down ~5pts) on relatively weak volume but decent average trade size - thanks in large part to the entirely ubiquitous rampathon into the close. A less-than-8pt range in ES saw the standard larger block sizes come through into the close as we ramped. Stocks were supported by USD weakness (-0.35%) but commodities ignored it (as did Treasuries). The front-end of the VIX term structure was the ramping-weapon choice today once again collapsing to red as S&P 500 futures were driven up to unchanged (and Friday's VWAP). The VIX term-structure has is its steepest in over three months and has steepened its most in 20 months over the past 5 days. HYG (also levered for a ramp) surged once again (to last week's key VWAP) squeezed this afternoon as its short-interest reaches record high levels (as it seems every HY manager is he...