If you enjoyed watching Janet Yellen spend several hours avoiding saying anything remotely interesting yesterday, you should love today’s Senate Banking Committee testimony.

In the meantime, EURUSD has reversed at our upside target and broken trend to the downside……even as USDJPY makes a feeble attempt at stabilizing.The net result is a dollar index which seems utterly confused.There are two clues, however, that should not be missed.  One is that PPI came in at +2.0% YoY, a very questionable number given the actual sharp decline in oil and gas prices.   But, not surprising, given that the Fed is trying to defend the USD here…continued for members…

The other is that Draghi and Kuroda are each peddling their own BS.  The BoJ is busily refuting reports that it was about to start tapering.  And, it was just announced that Draghi is going to attend Jackson Hole.  I’ve found the whole “ECB is ready to start tapering” story to be rubbish from the start.

Equities started out with a slight VIX-aided bump this morning, but are now backtesting the channels they worked so hard to break out of yesterday. It’s all at the direction of VIX, which slipped into single digits overnight – just to remind the algos that it can.Make no mistake about it.  These moves in ES and SPX were very carefully calibrated to break out of the falling channel and backtest it.  Note the precision of the gap higher yesterday, and the backtest this morning.It’s probably good I’m going on vacation tomorrow.  Because, I’ll admit, the manipulation is getting under my skin more than it normally does.

Every previous vacation over the past 6 years I’ve managed to post a few charts each morning.  This time, I hope to take the week off entirely – no posting, no charts, just noddling about big picture stuff while matching wits with cagey Oregon trout.

I’ve been fly fishing in Oregon since I was a kid, and it’s one of the most relaxing past times I know of.  I now have the pleasure of teaching my kids (though my 18 yo daughter will tell you she’s teaching me.)  We have a tradition in our family where kids get a vacation wherever they like with Dad when they graduate high school.

For daughter #1, it was London and Paris.  No arguments there, as I love both places.  My son upped the ante with a whirlwind trip around Europe: Paris to Normandy to Amsterdam to the Rhine to Lauterbrunnen and back to Paris (in 8 days.)  It was a lot of fun, but not terribly relaxing for me, the chauffeur.

So, I’m gratified that daughter #2 wants to go to Oregon, where I can relax all I want.  I then have the pleasure of accompanying her to Massachusetts where she’ll start college this Fall at Amherst.

BTW, I’ll be in Boston and New York from July 25 – August 4 if anyone wants to connect.  I’m doing a few formal presentations for corporate clients and have plenty of room in my schedule for more.  I’d also be delighted to meet for coffee, lunch, etc.  Just drop me a line.

UPDATE:  3:48 PM

Would have been a good day to sleep in…  VIX has continued to push SPX a little higher all day.  At this point, we could get a breakout.  But, it’s equally likely we’ll get a backtest of the SMA5 200 as it emerges from the purple channel at 2441.55 — not much point-wise unless it does more than backtest, which seems somewhat unlikely in the absence of a catalyst. But, in the catalyst department, we have a lot of econ data coming out tomorrow.  So, it’s anyone’s guess.