Stocks And Bonds Reconnect As Endangered Rising VIX Posts A Rare Appearance

Once again equity markets disconnected (positively) from their risk-related cousins at around the European close and while broad equity markets closed around unchanged, the weakness in HY credit, and rise in VIX and Treasury bond prices as the day wore on told a slightly more concerned story than stocks would suggest. AAPL rose helping the tech sector; homebuilders saw their biggest loss in 5 weeks following weaker than expected housing data; and CAT's incredulous rally on total lack of clarity for their outlook provided just enough juice to keep the Dow near unchanged. S&P 500 futures fell rapidly to Friday's low as the US day session opened but found support and oscillated around unch/VWAP for the rest of the day. The USD round-tripped from early strength to end unchanged with GBP weakness and JPY strength. Oil rallied, Silver slipped, Gold tracked the USD, but Treasuries' overnigh...