What do you do when two tankers explode in the Straits of Hormuz? You buy stocks, sell the VIX, and dump the dollar silly!! Early weakness was erased ahead of the lunch break in China but the buying spree ended in the afternoon session... European markets bounced early but drifted lower for the rest of the day... US Equity futures shot higher on news that two tankers had exploded in the Straits of Hormuz... While The Dow and S&P barely clung to the gains (until the late-day panic-buying spree), Small Caps and Trannies outperformed... Thanks to yet another short-squeeze at the open... Nasdaq unable to get back above its 50DMA... The Dow found support above its 50DMA once again... Treasuries were unsurprisingly bid on the tanker attacks (long-end underperformed again however)...10Y and 30Y are the only parts of the curve that remain higher in yield on the week... 10Y Yields back at pre-payrolls lows... The modest curve steepening continues but 3,10Y remains inverted for the 16th day in a row... While the dollar was relatively quiet, it ended lower as any suggestion of it being a safe-haven amid the tanker attacks was dismissed... DXY hovering at some key technical levels... Offshore yuan (and the fix)remain in a stubbornly well-managed range... Bitcoin was also bid on the tanker attack... Commodities were up across the board led by oil as would be expected... But we do note that WTI only managed a modest $1-2 rise on the back of the tanker attacks... NOTE - even the spike caused by Pompeo's claims was sold. Gold was bid on safe-haven basis (trying to make it 4 weeks in a row higher)... Once again testing up to that $1350 Maginot Line after Paul Tudor Jones pitched the precious metal as his best trade of the next two years And Gold in Yuan is back at its highest since April 2013... Finally, the chaos in the world is having some serious effects as a funding crisis in Hong Kong (i.e. people demanding liquidity over and above the banks' ability to deliver) as riots continue has inverted the HIBOR curve for the first time since Lehman... And so much for education - college-graduates are the most psyched about the economy since the peak of the DotCom boom... How'd that work out for ya?