The Bull(y) Rally
Something unnatural is going on.
“A bully is always a coward.”~ Thomas Chandler Haliburton
The current market rally is like a playground bully; shoving to the ground anyone in its path.
But like all bullies, the braggadocio belies an underlying cowardice.
Those in charge of the status quo must be absolutely terrified to resort to the unnatural lengths they are going to right now to keep the current rally intact.
Unnatural Acts
In reaction to the brief market correction that occurred at the end of 2018, emergency measures were enacted to get stocks moving higher again.
Notably among the scramble to rescue the markets, the Fed pulled a very public and embarrassing policy U-turn, abandoning its short-lived program of planned interest rates hikes designed to start ‘normalizing’ its balance sheet after a decade of flooding the economy with stimulus. Quantitative Tightening, we hardly knew ya …(sniff)
In response to the efforts of the Plunge Protection Team, the Fed, its siblings in the global central banking cartel, the cheerleading media, and the Trump administration, the markets roared back strongly at the start of 2019.
So strongly, in fact, that 2019 has seen the best start to the year for stocks EVER IN HISTORY.
At this point, the major indices have recouped all of their losses from their December lows and are now back touching their all-time highs.
So…mission accomplished, right? Surely the financial swat team deployed at beginning of the year can stand down and go celebrate over a few well-deserved brewskis?
Not if you’re watching closely. In fact, the efforts to prop up stocks continue to become more frequent, more overt, and more extreme.
Daily Fed Jawboning
As mentioned, the Fed has executed a complete 180-degree policy turnaround in light of the market’s feinting swoon last year. Suddenly, it can’t appear dovish enough:
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