The commentary this week is abbreviated due to a single-keystroke that was sufficient to blow away content composed in the Gmail message being used to compose the document. Beware! You cannot depend on the new, improved Gmail message function.
Earlier in the week, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta made some dovish comments that supported stocks for a day. The Nikkei rose above 14,000 Wednesday only to reverse back below that level the following day and finish the week there.
Thursday, stocks in Asia dropped 0.5% as the Nikkei lost 2% and again broke decisively below 14,000. Europe and the U.S. dropped 1.1% on low volume. Precious metals down about 3% and miners about twice that. The VXO jumped up more than 14% to close at 14.86. The Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Bond yield rose to 2.8 percent fueling the negative trend in stocks.
Friday, stocks in Asia dropped 0.6% following the downward momentum of the previous day. In Europe they rose 0.3% and they fell 0.3% in the U.S. on low moderate volume. The VXO retreated to 14.37 and the Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Bond yield rose to 2.83%.
For the week, stocks fell 1.8% but the real action was in bonds.