It sure seemed like it. Frankly, knowing it was Options Expiry and having looked at the last few days of ‘trading’ I didn’t even follow the day with even one eye. What would be the point? It would be like watching a movie you absolutely abhorred the first time… AGAIN!
Seriously, imagine sitting through a 6 hour version of Ishtar for the 12th time. Then tell me you would feel compelled to do it a 13th?[1]
Gold moved less than a dollar, closing the week at $1643.65. Silver from the COMEX open to the Globex close moved less than $0.10 and closed the week at $31.66. The Euro rallied and the USDX fell, and the bond market moved all over the place, but Gold, Silver and Oil did not respond. Again, Options Expiry casts a long shadow on the equity markets. So, the option writers got the stocks where they wanted and turn the HFT algo calculators off for the afternoon. While the Dow was up 0.5%, it opened there and pretty much didn’t move for the entire day.
Capital flows pushed U.S. Treasury Bond prices up and yields down to 3.13% and CDS spreads on 5 year Spanish sovereign debt over 500 basis points. In an age where Vietnamese bond yields are going down and Spanish/Italian yields are rising faster I have to wonder just who the Fed is trying to fool anymore.
[1] -I know, the Ishtar reference dates me.
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