No. There's no evidence that this was even material... In other words, the rally was based on the idea that the Fed might not tighten as fast or as much if inflation is really slowing. It's perfectly obvious to us that it isn't.

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There's simply no reason in the CPI data to believe that the Fed will back off from its tightening regimen. The longer the market stays high and the more it rises, the greater the risk of a severe adjustment.

I'm still waiting, because $1 billion of bitcoin will evaporate in a week or two of selling. $2 or $3 billion of bitcoin gets transacted a day... Already 82% of all bitcoins are mined and around May 2020 new supply will halve. You can love or hate that, but bitcoin is solid deflationary money. We shouldn't hold the ‘digital gold' moniker against it. Bitcoin is a global currency, with increasing acceptance, a huge brand up there with Trump and the NFL, a global audience and a record of appreciation.

This is really fascinating. The debate is between those who believe "policymakers deserve credit for doing enough to stop this from turning into a Second Great Depression", and "those who say policymakers didn't do enough to stop this from being far worse than it needed to be." There is apparently no space for those who think policymakers did too much, or even that they screwed up royally in creating the conditions for the collapse in the first place. Be afraid.

The good news is, the next one will probably generate a somewhat less painful hit than past episodes, according to their analysis. The bad news? Diminished financial market liquidity since the 2008 implosion is a "wildcard" that's tough to game out...

Assuming an average-length recession, the model came up with the following peak-to-trough performance estimates for different asset classes in the next crisis, according to the note:

U.S. stock slide of about 20 percent.

A jump in U.S. corporate-bond yield premiums of about 1.15 percentage points.

A 35 percent tumble in energy prices and 29 percent slump in base metals.

A 2.79 percentage point widening in spreads on emerging-nation government debt.

A 48 percent slide in emerging-market stocks, and a 14.4 percent drop in emerging currencies.

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[But] JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic has previously concluded that the big shift away from actively managed investing -- through the rise of index funds, exchange-traded funds and quantitative-based trading strategies -- has escalated the danger of market disruptions. He and his colleagues wrote in a separate note Monday of the potential for a future "Great Liquidity Crisis." ... This change has "eliminated a large pool of assets that would be standing ready to buy cheap public securities and backstop a market disruption," Chang and Loeys warned.

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Nasdaq cut the entire trade on Wednesday and the exchange confirmed that the loss accounted for all of the exchange's own default fund of €7m and swallowed €107m, or two-thirds, of its €166m mutual default fund that clearing house members must contribute to.

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With Nasdaq and members of its clearing house repairing the damage, questions as to how a single trader could come close to wiping out the clearing house's layers of protection will merit the attention of regulators, including the European Central Bank.Members of the clearing house include some of the biggest banks and energy traders such as Morgan Stanley, UBS and Equinor, Norway's state oil company... .The catalyst for the trading loss was a series of backfiring bets on the price difference between German and Nordic power markets, according to multiple sources in the industry.

The action in the bond market signals mounting worry about the high-wire act at Tesla. Elon Musk is scrambling to ramp up Model 3 production fast enough to turn a profit -- and use that money for looming debt payments.

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More than $9 billion of Tesla's debt is scheduled to mature before 2025, including a total of $2.7 billion this year and next, according to a Goldman Sachs research report that called the company's balance sheet "concerning."

"Tesla is extremely leveraged. They have a gun to their heads dictated by the timing of the debt payments," said Cowen's Osborne, who has an "underperform" rating on the stock.

And in addition to Tesla, the government is gunning for Zuckerberg and Facebook. Snapchat is proving to be a disastrous investment (down nearly 65% from its IPO). WeWork bonds just got downgraded to junk... We're starting to see major cracks in tech investors' faith.

This is a MAJOR turn that's taken place over the last couple of months. And if tech stocks go down, the market is going with it. Tech stocks, in particular "FAANG" stocks -- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google -- have been holding this market up for a long time. Tech stocks have been responsible for around 95% of stock market gains this year.

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In addition to investor's losing faith, the government is also breathing down the necks of these tech giants... Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the cutely named Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (aka Stop BEZOS Act) that aims to tax companies for low-wage employees receiving government assistance.

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And now companies are viewing their visionary founders as liabilities... Apparently investors and boards have woken up to the fact that these guys are fallible (and mortal), so there's more talk of key man risk insurance should anything happen to them.

It's been nothing but buttercups and unicorns for tech stocks these past few years. And these recent developments go to show you, everything moves in cycles. And we may be entering a downcycle in tech.

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A shift away from the focus on the neutral rate could buttress the arguments of those who feel the Fed should instead pay more attention to financial markets, and particularly to the evolution of financial risks.

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In a paper released Thursday evening, [Boston Fed President] Rosengren said the Fed in conjunction with state and local authorities should be preparing more to fight the next recession, including with the possible use of higher capital buffers for banks.