Inflation came in hotter than expected and – guess what? – stocks screamed higher … which is the exact opposite of what “should” happen.
But we’ve long since given up on expecting what should happen to actually happen. Stocks have been screaming higher for months on the back of the Fed and US Treasury conspiring to make financial conditions as easy as they’ve been in years. Which runs counter to this whole idea that ‘the Fed is tightening’ that is 100% not true.
Here’s what you get during such periods of time:
My explanation for the extreme desperation on display by the Fed and US Treasury is that their interventions are having to be both larger and more frequent just to keep the whole thing stapled together. Their fear seems to be along the lines of “If we let this thing deflate even slightly, the whole mess might explode in our hands and on our watch.”
Diving into an article on Nasdaq’s own website reveals that what Dr. Susanne Trimbath said is accurate: there are many more owners of stocks (and presumably bonds) than are issued due to the activities of various short positions actors. As well, the ‘liquidity’ in the stock market is 70%+ provided by intermediaries who hold a tiny fraction of the stock issuance, all “protected” and enabled by derivative positions.