US Futures Levitate To New All Time High As USDJPY Surges Above 105; Gold Slammed

Jon Alternative Media, Blogosphere, Economy, Gold, Market Commentary, Politics, Precious Metals, Silver

Just when we thought centrally-planned markets could no longer surprise us, here comes last night’s superspike in the USDJPY which has moved nearly 100 pips higher in the past few trading days and moments ago crossed 105.000. The reason for the surprise is that while there was no economic news that would justify such a move: certainly not an improving Japanese economy, nor, for that matter, a new and improved collapse, what the move was attributed to was news that Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who has been advocating for the GPIF to reduce allocation to domestic bonds, may be appointed the Health Minister when Abe announces his new cabinet tomorrow: a reshuffle driven by the fact that the failure of Abenomics is starting to anger Japan’s voters. In other words, the GPIF continues to be the “forward guidance” gift that keeps on giving, even if the vast majority of its capital reallocation into equities has already long since taken place. As a result of the USDJPY surge, driven by a rumor of a minister appointment, the Nikkei is up 1.2%, which in turned has pushed both Europe and Asia to overnight highs and US equity futures to fresh record highs, with the S&P500 cash now just 40 points away, or about 4-8 trading sessions away from Goldman’s revised 2014 year end closing target.
Oh, for whatever reason but probably just because “banks are providing liquidity”, both gold and silver were summarily pounded to multi-month lows seconds ago.
In other Asian markets, the Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite, and the KOSPI are 0%, 1.4% and -0.8%, respectively. European stocks advance amid speculation that slower growth will prompt policy makers to accelerate stimulus. German and Italian shares outperform. The yen came close to a five-year low against the dollar, while the pound falls after a survey showed support for Scottish independence increasing. Treasuries drop ahead of reports this week that economists predict will show U. S. manufacturing and employment expanded in August. Oil and gold fall.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/02/2014.