Everyone is trying to make sense of this market but this looks like position-squaring to me.
An extremely crowded trade has been to buy AI (i.e. NVDA) and short rate-sensitive stocks (Russell 2000). That’s been a wonderful trade as the Russell 2000 languished and Nvidia soared to briefly become the most-valuable stock in the world.
The trade has looked like a blow-off lately and there is some real angst creeping in around the Fed, inflation and growth. That may have led to a rush to the exits today. It may also be compounded by a rush into stocks that benefit from lower rates, many of which are in the Russell 2000.
Looking ahead, I wonder if this kind of turmoil argues for volatility, which has been depressed.
This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.