Markets Love Dovish Fed Minutes

The already overbought markets are still adding to previous gains. The primary focus remains the Fed can’t raise interest rates so bulls believe. So the rally continues despite overwhelming evidence of economic weakness. ZIRP seems to be all bulls care about.

Why?

Primarily because it allows for more stock buybacks which have been an underpinning of the market rally since ZIRP has been with us. For corporations use ZIRP to finance these operations with the result being fewer stocks mean even weak earnings look better for stock prices.

Further understanding that economic growth is weak (not “solid”) Fed Governor Kocherlakota stated Fed should consider “negative” interest rates—hardly a sign of economic confidence. To which he added “tapering asset purchases led to slower job gains. Amusingly former Fed Chairman Bernanke stated Thursday another falsehood ZIRP and QE were responsible for lowering unemployment. (See realty in chart below courtesy ZH)

So Thursday, stocks rallied once again and by most effective measures stocks are much overbought short-term. After all, in 5 days the Dow for example has risen from the Employment Report low 1,000 points.

Market sectors moving higher included: Dow (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY), Banks (KBE), Financials (XLF), REITs (IYR), Industrials (XLI), Retail (XRT), Consumer Discretionary (XLY), Homebuilders (ITB), Materials (XLB), Utilities (XLU), Energy (XLE), Transports (IYT), Emerging Markets (EEM), Europe (VGK), EAFE (EFA), South Korea (EWY), Brazil (EWZ), Russia (RSX), Small Caps (IWM), Mid-Caps (MDY), Asia ex-Japan (AAXJ), Hong Kong (EWH), Mexico (EWW), Canada (EWC), Africa (EZA), Australia (EWA, Crude Oil (USO) and many more.

Market sectors moving lower included: Bonds (TLT), Gold (GLD), Silver (SLV), Gold Stocks (GDX), Volatility (VIX), Shanghai (ASHR) and only a few others.

The top ETF daily market movers by percentage change in volume whether rising or falling is available daily.