The Day The Robots Died.

Well, Tuesday started off great and then went to hell in a handbasket – that’s pretty much the only way to describe it.

The overseas session was ebullient as Asian markets took their cues from Wall Street’s Monday bonanza, and European shares rebounded nicely after falling into a correction to start the week.

At some point, it sunk in that exactly none of the problems that conspired to push U.S. equities dramatically lower last week had in fact been resolved. As it turns out, it’s going to take more than Steve Mnuchin talking to Fox News and Donald Trump going a day without tweeting anything absolutely crazy to cure what ails us.

 

On Tuesday morning, Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore laid out the long list of worries that still hangs over markets and if you just scan that list, you’d be hard pressed to find anything that warrants the type of panic bid we saw on Monday.

But really, Tuesday was all about the robots. It was the worst day for tech since February 8:

Nasdaq

Widest daily trading range for big-cap tech since the August 2015 chaos:

Range

Nasdaq VIX highest since the February turmoil:

VXN

Dow down 344, erasing half of yesterday’s gain. Remember this?…

great

Facebook is a goddamn horror show. Just read these headlines from today (in order of when they hit, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET and continuing non stop, all day):

  • ZUCKERBERG DECLINES TO APPEAR BEFORE U.K. PARLIAMENT: TELEGRAPH
  • COLLINS SAYS WOULD STILL LIKE TO HEAR FROM ZUCKERBERG:TELEGRAPH
  • FACEBOOK PT LOWERED TO $210 FROM $230 AT BOFAML, REMAINS BUY
  • FACEBOOK ERASES PRE-MARKET GAIN, SHARES DOWN 1%
  • FACEBOOK ‘STORM IS LIKELY TO LINGER,’ BUT SHOULD PASS: AEGIS
  • Mark Zuckerberg has come to terms with the fact that he will have to testify before Congress in a matter of weeks, CNN reports
  • FACEBOOK IS SETTLING CIVIL RIGHTS SUIT OVER RACE-TARGETED ADS
  • Facebook CEO Said to Plan to Testify Before House Panel April 12

Needless to say, the shares were down. And “bigly”. Again, if this doesn’t turn around in the next couple of sessions, Facebook could end up logging its second worst month in history:

FB

Tesla was hammered as the NTSB is sending investigators to look into that fatal California crash and the sellside isn’t helping matters. There was this, for instance, from Citi:

Tesla

In short, shares are at one-year lows:

Tesla

And then there was this:

  • NVIDIA IS SAID TO TEMPORARILY SUSPEND SELF-DRIVING TESTING:RTRS

That’s no good either, and it looks to me like the shares had their worst day in at least a year:

NVDA

Oh and this:

And also this:

https://twitter.com/CitronResearch/status/978643993327124482

Twitter plunged:

Twitter

But don’t worry:

Treasurys surged with 10Y yields diving below 2.80:

10Y

Financials were crushed:

Financials

The dollar rose:

DXY

Gold fell from a five-week high so you got no diversification from “safe” shiny doorstops today:

Gold

As noted above, Asian markets were in rally mode overnight, with Japanese shares logging their second best day of the year…

Nikkei

…and mainland shares in China recouping some of last week’s declines:

Mainland

Finally, for your moment of zen, Hucka-San was back on Tuesday and if what you want to know is whether Mexico is still going to pay for the border wall (or whether, maybe, Trump is going to try and make the Pentagon fund it instead), she’ll get back to you…

 

 

 

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7 thoughts on “The Day The Robots Died.

  1. The HFT robots may be artificially intelligent (and supremely ready for prime time) when volatility is at all-time lows.

    But when it hits the fan, no algorithm can possibly know what to do.

    Humans aren’t any better than machines at navigating wild market swings. Both players bring their own quirks to the game – which is why the current level of complexity in the system will trigger a whole new kind of ‘supercritical’ behavior.

  2. That video still of the Huckabull is scary. Think I’m going to take Elon’s advice and “buy GM.” BTW H, is it a “scare” quote or an “air” quote? Only ask since one uses air quotes in conversation and it therefore makes more sense. Not trying to be a smartass or anything, just trying to help.

  3. H / WW : And now for the rest of the story.
    America’s first gold rush WAS started by a 17 lb. doorstop.
    Very close to clear paperwight rocks more expensive that diamonds – hiddenite.
    Jus’ sayin’.

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