The Big Picture: Apr 27, 2016

Since the next two sessions will be dominated by central bank market manipulation, I’m going to focus today on the big picture.

CL is up almost 2% this morning, an almost daily occurrence (market hours are highlighted in the chart below.) This allowed the sell off which might have occurred after the world’s biggest company lost $40 billion in market cap, following a disastrous earnings report, to be limited to about 8 points.Likewise, USDJPY continues to be pressed into service to prop stocks up, even though its influence has been overshadowed by CL’s. Often, like Friday’s massive 2.4% spike, its actions are designed to compensate for CL’s weakness.And, like CL, its spikes are generally confined to market hours in order to have the greatest impact on stocks. After hours, when futures are more easily propped up, it’s reset in order to be ready to repeat the charade the following day.