Eye of the Tiger… Stocks have refused to give up today. Despite two selloffs –the first after 22m Americans reportedly filed for unemployment (erasing all jobs created since The Great Recession), and the second after Gov Cuomo announced an extended lockdown until at least May 15th  , the S&P continues its desperate fight for green. Retailers and Healthcare are providing some of the muscle, but lest we forget Netflix (+3.5%) and Amazon (AMZN +4%), who continue to take over the world with new highs again today. Another stock of note — Morgan Stanley (-0.4%) bucking the bank trend (JPM -4%, GS -2.2%). The company saw good underlying performance and has limited its ongoing exposure to credit risk, allowing it to outperform its counterparts. It will be interesting to watch the rest of today play out – Energy  and Banks dragging the clawing S&P.

No More Sunday Scaries? – That nervous dread excitement we all get as the weekend is coming to a close took was heightened even further of late due to how Mondays were playing out. But today makes 2 in a row that equities got off to a strong start to the week. It was a case of less bad news than overt good news – Spain reported less infections/deaths and NY state, serving as the US hotspot proxy, saw similar. Hopefully we are ebbing from the peak but warnings from top officials that the coming week was to be the hardest and saddest have many from getting too ebullient.

It started off well, and…  Things started off nicely today with markets bouncing after yesterday’s big drop.  Most sectors were trading higher (except Homebuilders, which has underperformed all session), but an announcement that Trump was going to hold a 3pm news conference to declare a National Emergency took some of the bid out.  As the US waits, equities are rallying once again, with the S&P +3% from the European close. Leading that rally, Banks (+3.3% from EU cls), Transports (+3.3%) and Biotech (IBB +3.7%).

Short and sweet (sour) today…

Nothing is in the green – Risk-off is now in every asset as investors move to cash.  With little guidance from Washington, and events/ schools/ countries (Italy) shutting down, the economic impact is not even close to being felt.  Sell first and then ask questions reigns. Investors want to see fiscal support, and they are not getting it yet.

Live to fight another day…

Pandemic Pandemonium…Policy stimulus is supportive in general, but seemingly not enough until we get the so-called Corona pandemic under control.  The House of Reps is expected to announce an economic relief package including insurance, paid sick leave, and family and medical leave in the bill today. However, The Dems don’t love President Trump’s tax cut proposal (“non-starter”). Oh well. But markets are not feeling any relief. Only a select, expected few — USD, Bonds and The Vix (and nat gas actually) are in the green.

Short-Circuiting – It’s never a good sign when everyone is brushing upon the circuit-breaker rules pre-mkt. US indices were open for ~4 minutes before the halts came into play. It was the first time they’ve been triggered since Dec, 2008. When the defensive sector are yielding losses of 4-5%, you know things have gone really sour. 4 different sectors are currently seeing DOUBLE-DIGIT losses. We did see some brief bargain-hunting in travel-related names and the oils; BRIEF. About that…