3% Market Ramp... On No Deal, And On Debt Ceiling Breach

S&P 500 futures staged a 3% rally off their overnight lows - taking them back to 3-day highs as  headline after headline triggered another round of stop-runs. VIX compression led the way as hedges were pushed off to March and higher levels enabled better exits above Friday's plunge VWAP levels. The year ends with the Dow beating Gold for the first time in nine years. The USD fell 0.5% on the year. European stocks beat US stocks (EuroStoxx50 almost doubling the Dow's performance). US Treasuries and US stocks both rallied. Gold beat the Dow for the ninth year in a row (just). Financials gained 26% on the year. The Treasury curve flattened with the front-end selling off modestly and the belly rallying 10-15bps. VIX was unchanged from the start of the year at the open today - but thanks to the epic compression and steepening we have fallen back (VIX lower on the year). Of course, to...