Plunge ‘Protected’: BoJ-Buying, FedSpeak Bailout Friday’s ‘Bullard Bomb’ Last week ended this way… So someone had to do something! h/t Japan’s Plunge Protection Team stepped in to rescue markets overnight as The Bank of Japan purchased 70.1b yen of ETFs Monday after the Topix declined by 2.5% in morning trading. That was the first “intervention” since April 21st… Then The White House called America’s Plunge Protection Team in, as Fed Speakers unleashed their double-talk, sending US equities rebounding dramatically from overnight lows… Erasing all of Friday’s Bullard-Bomb losses… On the day, Small Caps were the huge outperformer. Nasdaq the laggard but still managed solid gains… Dow’s best day in 3 months, S&P’s best day in a month (why?) Russell 2000 and S&P 500 both bounced off their 50DMAs today… Notably the Nasdaq/Russell ratio found support AGAIN at a key level… Source: Bloomberg Funny how these short-squeezes happen right on cue with magical capital being deployed massively and broadly… Source: Bloomberg Value roared back just as HFs had rotated back to Growth… Source: Bloomberg VIX was monkeyhammered lower today, but was unable to break below 18… Bonds were clubbed like a baby seal on the day with a massive rise in yields off overnight lows. 2s and 5s remain around 10bps higher post-FOMC, 30Y around 8ps lower and 10Y unch… Source: Bloomberg 10Y yields soared back 14bps off overnight lows, erasing Friday’s drop and back at pre-FOMC levels… Source: Bloomberg But 30Y yields spiked a massive 19bps off the overnight lows!! Source: Bloomberg The yield curve perfectly erased Friday’s flattening… Source: Bloomberg 5Y Breakevens pushed back up to the post-FOMC spike lows… Source: Bloomberg Cryptos were crushed again by China crackdown headlines… Source: Bloomberg Bitcoin tested back below $32k again holding key support… Source: Bloomberg Bitcoin also formed a death cross,

The Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada recently hosted a drag queen show at one of its on-base dining and entertainment clubs.

Armed F-22 Raptor fighters scrambled again Friday as Russian “Bear ” bombers headed for the second time toward Hawaii as part of an ongoing Russian naval and air exercise several hundred miles west of the Aloha State, a U.S. official said. Two of the Hawaii Air National Guard stealth fighters took off from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and did not intercept the Russian turboprops, which likely, as before, did not continue on a path toward Hawaii, according to an account of the launch. “Pacific Air Forces regularly perform air operations in airspace surrounding Hawaii. As a matter of policy, we don’t discuss tactics, techniques or procedures used by U.S. Air Force aircraft due to operational security requirements, ” the Oahu-based command said Friday evening in an email. Three F-22s and a KC-135 were launched last Sunday when Russian Bear bombers were first spotted taking a similar directional approach to Hawaii. In the earlier event, the Russian planes, which also can have an anti-submarine warfare role, never came close to Hawaii’s Air Defense Identification Zone. The Russian aircraft are “at least going out far enough (from an airbase ) that it required the F-22s to be scrambled, ” according to an official. A Russian spy ship, meanwhile, is stationed north of Oahu in international waters while some number of other Russian warships conducting the exercise are still more than 300 miles west of the main Hawaiian Islands in a rare show of naval capability by Moscow relatively close to the Aloha State. On Sunday three missile-armed F-22 fighters and a KC-135 refueling tanker were launched from Hickam when Tu-95 or Tu-142 Bear bombers or anti-submarine warfare turboprops that were part of the exercise were detected vectoring toward Hawaii but still a very long distance off. There were no intercepts of the propeller-powered aircraft in either case. Pacific Air Forces said Monday that the F-22 Raptors in the first launch conducted “an