Markets Scream ‘Panic’ To Powell As 2022’s Tech-Wreck Is Worst In Over 30 Years
Markets Scream ‘Panic’ To Powell As 2022’s Tech-Wreck Is Worst In Over 30 Years
The market is sending The Fed some very clear signals as it prices in an aggressive rate-hiking trajectory this year (just as the economic data starts to gravely.

The market is sending The Fed some very clear signals as it prices in an aggressive rate-hiking trajectory this year (just as the economic data starts to gravely disappoint) warning that it is 'panicking' and deserves 'more'...
Panic Signals include....
1) Indices puking hard
This the 3rd straight weekly loss for the S&P (its longest weekly losing streak since Sept 2020) with every bounce hit hard. Nasdaq and Small Caps were the hardest hit this week with The Dow the best of a bad bunch. This was the worst week for Nasdaq Since March 2020, Russell 2000's worst week since June 2020, and S&P and Dow's worst since Oct 2020...
Nasdaq is now suffering its worst start to a year in at least 30 years (it is very slightly worse than 2008)
The Nasdaq Composite is down 14% from its highs, but the Russell 2000 is worst, down over 18% from its highs (S&P -8.1% from its highs and Dow -6.75%)
2) Headline stock names have been clubbed like a baby seal (PTON, NFLX, ZM, etc...)...
...Retail Favorite stocks have been routed...
...and Bubble markets (unprofitable tech, SPACs, Crypto...) all monkeyhammered...
All of which looks like this...
3) VIX term structure inverted.
While typically projected as a 'bottom' indicator, this inversion seems particularly focused into The Fed meeting next week...
4) HY Bond prices at 14 month lows.
Credit leads, equities follow...
5) Fed rate expectations pricing in 4 hikes by Dec 2022.
...and given that 2Y yields dropped back below 1.00% today, the market is exclaiming to The Fed that a reversal in their policy is imminent...
6) The market is implying The Fed will fold by the end of 2025...
Not a good sign for Powell and his pals when the market is screaming at them not to even start because they'll be forced to lose all credibility with a year or two...
7) Yield Curve inverting hard (policy error warning).
The yield curve is the flattest since April 2020, screaming out to The Fed that they won't be hiking rates like they think for long...
8) Fed Repo facility usage hits YTD high.
Yes, there is $1.7 trillion in excess liquidity being thrown into this facility and not being leveraged to buy any dips...
Source: Bloomberg
9) Put-Call ratios are surging.
We suspect a lot of this is hedging into The Fed (but also note that today's OpEx would have wiped out some of the P/C strength)...
10) 'Panic' is accelerating (but has more to go yet before it reaches the scariest levels)...
Source: Bloomberg
TICK was really ugly the last two days with the biggest 'sell programs' since Sept 2021...
Source: Bloomberg
All signals that the market knows The Fed looks at for signs of stress as they put pressure on Powell to fold and strike his Put...
“Into the open today, we were looking for indications of panic readings for a more tradeable bottom ahead,” said Alon Rosin, Oppenheimer & Co.’s head of institutional equity derivatives.
“Between the TICK/TRIN readings during the morning flush and VIX inversions, it is possible that fear, panic has finally arrived.”
The problem - of course - is, as we noted earlier, the hope that this is a resumption of the Q4 2018 playbook - i.e. Fed tries to tighten, market pukes and forces Powell to fold) - is missing the fact that this time, with just so much more extensive speculative & valuation excess as a starting point the problem is the inflation issue - now a political imperative too - means the “Fed Put” is now struck much lower below spot...
...meaning no “dovish pivot” relief unless things get much, much worse from the markets-side.
Some more thoughts...
A violent intraday reversal like the Nasdaq’s yesterday is rare and most often happens during a crisis. This was the 21st time since 1972 that the benchmark rose more than 2% during the session only to decline 1% or more at the close.
The majority of those episodes occurred during the bursting of the Internet bubble and during the 2008 financial crisis. Before yesterday, the most recent example was in early days of the Covid pandemic in March 2020.
It takes time for volatility to wane. On average the index fell the following day and traded sideways in the next five days.
The S&P 500 closed below its 200DMA. As Jim Bianco notes, this ends a 409 trading day streak above it - the longest streak in 8 years...
In fact, all the US majors closed below their 200DMAs...
FAAMG-T stocks puked this week - the worst week since March 2020 (AMZN is in a bear market)...
Source: Bloomberg
Bank stocks had an ugly week with GS and JPM now significantly lower YTD...
Source: Bloomberg
Value stocks continued to outperform (this is the 4th straight week of outperformance and Value just broke above the downtrend relative to Growth...
Source: Bloomberg
Treasury yields ended lower on the week (apart from 2Y) with 30Y outperforming...
Source: Bloomberg
2Y Yields dropped back below 1.00%...
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar ended the week higher - its best week in the last 5 - finding resistance at the YTD unchanged line once again...
Source: Bloomberg
Cryptos cratered this week, with Ethereum underperforming (-17%, the worst week for ETH since Jun 2021) and Bitcoin the least bad horse in the glue factory (-11%)...
Source: Bloomberg
Pushing Bitcoin's RSI into deeply oversold territory that marked a local low last time...
Source: Bloomberg
Oil rallied for the 5th straight week with WTI topping $87 (highest since 2014)...
Gold rallied for the 5th week in the last 6, holding above $1800...
Finally, if you think you had a bad week, take a look at Biden's approval rating (now barely better than Trump's was)...
Source: Bloomberg
But worse still, Trump has overtaken Biden as the most 'favored' politician in America...
Source: Bloomberg
US Macro data disappointed this week again and has dropped back into negative territory...
Source: Bloomberg
And Stagflation is imminent...
Source: Bloomberg
We suspect more than just Ed Norton need a hug after this week...
I don’t keep pictures from films around home. But I have this one in my office in a frame bc it makes me smile every time. It’s engraved ‘Love and Hugs, Meat’ it sums him up well. He was so funny. And gentle. And warm to everyone. A sweet soul. RIP Meat Loaf pic.twitter.com/aMrIgXByEc
— Edward Norton (@EdwardNorton) January 21, 2022
RIP Meatloaf.
International
Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study
Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Repeated COVID-19…

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Repeated COVID-19 vaccination weakens the immune system, potentially making people susceptible to life-threatening conditions such as cancer, according to a new study.
Multiple doses of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines lead to higher levels of antibodies called IgG4, which can provide a protective effect. But a growing body of evidence indicates that the “abnormally high levels” of the immunoglobulin subclass actually make the immune system more susceptible to the COVID-19 spike protein in the vaccines, researchers said in the paper.
They pointed to experiments performed on mice that found multiple boosters on top of the initial COVID-19 vaccination “significantly decreased” protection against both the Delta and Omicron virus variants and testing that found a spike in IgG4 levels after repeat Pfizer vaccination, suggesting immune exhaustion.
Studies have detected higher levels of IgG4 in people who died with COVID-19 when compared to those who recovered and linked the levels with another known determinant of COVID-19-related mortality, the researchers also noted.
A review of the literature also showed that vaccines against HIV, malaria, and pertussis also induce the production of IgG4.
“In sum, COVID-19 epidemiological studies cited in our work plus the failure of HIV, Malaria, and Pertussis vaccines constitute irrefutable evidence demonstrating that an increase in IgG4 levels impairs immune responses,” Alberto Rubio Casillas, a researcher with the biology laboratory at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and one of the authors of the new paper, told The Epoch Times via email.
The paper was published by the journal Vaccines in May.
Pfizer and Moderna officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Both companies utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in their vaccines.
Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the technology, said the paper illustrates why he’s been warning about the negative effects of repeated vaccination.
“I warned that more jabs can result in what’s called high zone tolerance, of which the switch to IgG4 is one of the mechanisms. And now we have data that clearly demonstrate that’s occurring in the case of this as well as some other vaccines,” Malone, who wasn’t involved with the study, told The Epoch Times.
“So it’s basically validating that this rush to administer and re-administer without having solid data to back those decisions was highly counterproductive and appears to have resulted in a cohort of people that are actually more susceptible to the disease.”
Possible Problems
The weakened immune systems brought about by repeated vaccination could lead to serious problems, including cancer, the researchers said.
Read more here...
Spread & Containment
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Banned By Major Social Media Site, Campaign Pages Blocked
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Banned By Major Social Media Site, Campaign Pages Blocked
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Twitter…

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Twitter owner Elon Musk invited Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a discussion on his Twitter Spaces after Kennedy said his campaign was suspended by Meta-owned Instagram.
“Interesting… when we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up @instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban. Can anyone guess why that’s happening?” he wrote on Twitter.
An accompanying image shows that Instagram said it “suspended” his “Team Kennedy” account and that there “are 180 days remaining to disagree” with the company’s decision.
In response to his post, Musk wrote: “Would you like to do a Spaces discussion with me next week?” Kennedy agreed, saying he would do it Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
Hours later, Kennedy wrote that Instagram “still hasn’t reinstated my account, which was banned years ago with more than 900k followers.” He argued that “to silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic.”
“Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square,” the candidate, who is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, wrote. “How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?”
The Epoch Times approached Instagram for comment.
Interesting… when we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up @instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban. Can anyone guess why that’s happening? pic.twitter.com/0G8oRnoXTv
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
It’s not the first time that either Facebook or Instagram has taken action against Kennedy. In 2021, Instagram banned him from posting claims about vaccine safety and COVID-19.
After he was banned by the platform, Kennedy said that his Instagram posts raised legitimate concerns about vaccines and were backed by research. His account was banned just days after Facebook and Instagram announced they would block the spread of what they described as misinformation about vaccines, including research saying the shots cause autism, are dangerous, or are ineffective.
“This kind of censorship is counterproductive if our objective is a safe and effective vaccine supply,” he said at the time.
Read more here...
International
Study Falsely Linking Hydroxychloroquine To Increased Deaths Frequently Cited Even After Retraction
Study Falsely Linking Hydroxychloroquine To Increased Deaths Frequently Cited Even After Retraction
Authored by Jessie Zhang via Thje Epoch…

Authored by Jessie Zhang via Thje Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
An Australian and Swedish investigation has found that among the hundreds of COVID-19 research papers that have been withdrawn, a retracted study linking the drug hydroxychloroquine to increased mortality was the most cited paper.
With 1,360 citations at the time of data extraction, researchers in the field were still referring to the paper “Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis” long after it was retracted.
Authors of the analysis involving the University of Wollongong, Linköping University, and Western Sydney Local Health District wrote (pdf) that “most researchers who cite retracted research do not identify that the paper is retracted, even when submitting long after the paper has been withdrawn.”
“This has serious implications for the reliability of published research and the academic literature, which need to be addressed,” they said.
“Retraction is the final safeguard against academic error and misconduct, and thus a cornerstone of the entire process of knowledge generation.”
Scientists Question Findings
Over 100 medical professionals wrote an open letter, raising ten major issues with the paper.
These included the fact that there was “no ethics review” and “unusually small reported variances in baseline variables, interventions and outcomes,” as well as “no mention of the countries or hospitals that contributed to the data source and no acknowledgments to their contributions.”

Other concerns were that the average daily doses of hydroxychloroquine were higher than the FDA-recommended amounts, which would present skewed results.
They also found that the data that was reportedly from Australian patients did not seem to match data from the Australian government.
Eventually, the study led the World Health Organization to temporarily suspend the trial of hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 patients and to the UK regulatory body, MHRA, requesting the temporary pause of recruitment into all hydroxychloroquine trials in the UK.
France also changed its national recommendation of the drug in COVID-19 treatments and halted all trials.
Currently, a total of 337 research papers on COVID-19 have been retracted, according to Retraction Watch.
Further retractions are expected as the investigation of proceeds.
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