More gimmicks, higher highs. It’s getting to be an old story. But, as long as voters and algos don’t know or care, it will continue.

Futures were in danger of giving up Tuesday’s 3421.75 highs when VIX suddenly collapsed by 7% in a matter of seconds.When that didn’t immediately result in a sufficient boost, it happened again, this time around the jobless claims miss at 8:32 and yet again at 9:02 (by 9.8%) for good measure.

Higher highs, no problem.

continued for members…

VIX’s bigger picture…remember, it’s still in a bullish 10/20 cross (bearish for stocks.)ES even managed to put together an IH&S targeting 3645 as long (as long as it can hold 3422.)

SPX’s version, with yesterday’s high being 3924.88 and nowhere near as deep a right shoulder.  The chart below shows the two different channel breakouts, with the notion of a backtest of the red channel gradually losing any traction. At the same time, we still have USDJPY “breaking out”… …and GC/SI benefiting from the reflation sentiment inherent in a potential stimulus deal.…and CL/RB even threatening another breakout.We’ve been here before, of course, but it was a headfake. With Hurricane Delta brewing in the Gulf and the reopen trade goosed by Trump’s tweets, we’ll see if it might stick this time.The 10Y continues to be under pressure, but hasn’t yet broken down. We have quite a bit of important economic data coming out next week, with CPI, PPI, Michigan sentiment and retail sales all packed in.

The rest of the month… more later…

UPDATE:  3:45 PM

Like the title of this post: more gimmicks, higher highs.

VIX continues to get crushed – a steady relentless pressure that just keeps going lower in order to push ES/SPX a tiny bit higher every few minutes.  Not a market today, that’s for sure.