SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - VIX - Daytrader's Delight

A big swing in the stock markets today, as they opened much higher, and then plummeted on the ISM report, and more jitters about the deficit faux deal.

NonFarm Payrolls at the end of the week. See the comments intraday below.

This Week's US Economic Calendar - July NonFarm Payrolls on Friday

As a reminder, in addition to the Debt Ceiling Fandango, the real economy continues to chug along.

The market was shocked a bit by the miss in the ISM number this morning.

There are a few more important numbers being reported this week that have the potential to influence the markets, especially the Non-Farm Payrolls.

The July Non-Farm Payrolls report is interesting because like January it is one of the few monthly reports in which the raw actual number is revised significantly higher using a seasonality factor. This provides a fair amount of leeway in reporting the headline number, which itself is likely to be revised a month or two later.

As a reminder, isolated numbers, rather than the running trend, tend to be an integral part of the Wall Street/Washington magic lantern of perception modification.

I always like to look at the forecast from Briefing.com in addition to the consensus of economist forecasts. They run hot and cold like all individuals including myself, but it is good input nonetheless.

US Debt Limit and Debt Versus Gold in US Dollars

Let's see, when might we expect the price of gold in dollars to stop going higher?

Chart from sharelynx, and a h/t to my brother Steve.

It would be interesting to see this correlated to Debt/GDP or Broad Money Supply/GDP, but this gets the point across.

This is your country on oxycontin. Get used to it. h/t Ilene.

Who Owns US Treasury Debt?

h/t Barry Ritholz