Today was a quadruple witching expiration, with the futures rolling over to June, and the options expiration on US equities.
And naturally we saw the rest of the wash and rinse cycle, the up and down, that has characterized this week.
So what next. Ukraine is the visible manifestation of the currency war, and it seems to be getting warmer, not colder. With round two of the financial retaliation of the US going forward, with credit cards and accounts being frozen, and downgrades from the credit ratings agencies, a message is going out to the rest of the world, loudly and clearly.
I expect this will be a volatile year overall, with stocks tottering a bit on their lofty heights. I am not looking for a crash or anything such as that, although this is the kind of environment in which an exogenous event would cut to the bone.
The Fed has the market's back, and certainly the backs of their owners at the Banks. The pundits were touting the financial stocks today. Of course, these are the same types who would say things like, "The signs are that the end is near. Up next, a list of stocks that are expected to outperform in the apocalypse."
Have a pleasant weekend.
