‘I’m Smart.’

It was back to your regularly scheduled programming on Thursday, with bonds recovering and stocks rising after a stumble on Wednesday:

Although, on a cautionary note, renowned equity strategist Donald Trump is predicting a correction in the event his physical doesn’t go well…

 

Believe it or not, that wasn’t nearly the stupidest thing he said on Thursday. He kicked things off by directly contradicting his own push on FISA renewal, prompting all manner of confusion. The only person who wasn’t confused was Hucka-San:

• SANDERS SAYS TRUMP TWEETS ABOUT FISA TODAY NOT CONFUSING

He also tweeted this apparent celebration of Walmart:

Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT! pic.twitter.com/SLvhLxP3Jl

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

And then just hours later, this hit:

https://t.co/NWZQfSpllR

— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) January 11, 2018

Summed up:

 

“Not like everybody says.”

Treasurys bull flattened with the long end leading a rally after a strong 30Y auction supported. Here’s a look at how things have shaped up for 10Y yields since the China news on Wednesday:

A PPI miss and purportedly “hawkish” ECB Minutes weighed on the dollar. Here’s an annotated chart that gives you some perspective on what’s happened over the last two days:

And here’s the euro:

Bunds sold off sharply on the Minutes with 10Y yields in Germany climbing to a “whopping” (sarcasm) 58bps. And look, if that’s not “juicy” enough for you, you can always loan Macedonia some money for 7 years and get 3% which, as Bloomberg’s Sebastian Boyd mused this morning, actually makes them look like a great deal compared to other sovereign and government euro-denominated bonds with Bloomberg composite ratings in the range BB+ to BB-:

Brent topped $70 for the first time in years on renewed hopes that we’re closing in on the elusive “balanced market”:

Remember how the yuan had its worst day against the dollar since September after the PBoC sidelined the counter-cyclical adjustment factor earlier this week? Yeah well the offshore yuan strengthened back through 6.50 on Thursday and is now close to erasing this week’s declines:

Bitcoin was spooked by the drama unfolding in South Korea and by the China crackdown on mining operations. It’s off to a rather inauspicious start in 2018:

Oh, and last year was the best year ever for Target managers-turned vol. sellers:

Finally, for your moment of zen, here’s Steve Mnuchin “explaining” the Walmart discrepancy noted above:

https://twitter.com/MelsLien/status/951539963023319040