The stock market is really a by-product of tremendous forces at work primarily in the currency and commodity markets and on Tuesday, traders were very uncertain given this is Janet Yellen's week.
The Federal Reserve chairwoman goes up to Capitol Hill to deliver the Fed's semiannual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and Senate Banking Committeeon Thursday. The Fed has recently announced that its bank stress tests for 2016 will include a period of negative yields on short-term Treasuries as part of its “severely adverse scenario”.
So all ears will be on what Janet Yellen has to say as this certainly sounds like the Fed is acknowledging the economy is now in big trouble, with any idea of rate cuts off the table and every effort to undercut the US dollar, boost crude oil prices and the stock market to follow.
We are now at a very crucial test, as crude oil prices begin to test the lows of January at $27.56. Crude oil fell $1.75 to close at $27.94 a barrel.
Here is where the investment bankers put crude oil prices just ahead of Yellen's Fed speech.
Today's intra-low was $27.74 was very near January's lows of $27.56 so we are really right there, so Yellen's comments will be crucial and you can bet that the big banks should be there on Wednesday to power ramp prices if recent history is any guide.
Notice the positive divergence when comparing the energy stocks, such as Vanguard Energy (VDE), which at this point is correcting but well above its January lows in anticipation of a successful test. This is usually the time when oil prices tend to bottom so we'll see what she has to say to undercut the dollar or perhaps hint towards negative interest rates.
The Fed powers have really hammered the US dollar in February with all of this talk of negative interest.
Here we are when even zero interest rates are insufficient to the task at hand at stimulating the economy but this is exactly what the Yellen will be talking about tomorrow.