As we noted earlier, something is seriously broken in these 'markets' and when the head of Blackrock appears on CNBC and uses the "cash on the sidelines" meme to justify stocks going higher (which is unbridled idiocy, remember), we suspect even the big boys are getting nervous about the decouplings, illiquidity, and BoJ-driven exuberance. The early pre-open ramp in stocks was quickly eviscerated as data missed (PMI & Construction Spending) and stocks retraced back to bond reality... but 'they' needed all-time highs to run some more stops as USDJPY burst to 114. Once those highs in US equities were tagged and traders realized what the Saudi actions regarding oil prices meant, WTI plunged and dragged stocks with it. Bonds, oil, HY credit, and VIX all decoupled from stocks.

The other decoupling

Disappointing day - but we are sure a victory for the bulls...

Quite a day for homebuilders (dump-and-pump on piss-poor housing data) and Energy pump-and-dump on Saudi news)

Post-Saudi price cuts, stocks pumped (yay lower prices) then dumped (wait the Saudis are screwing us?!)

As stocks played catch down to bonds 3 times...

Driven by oil prices - today higher oil was a good thing, lower a bad thing again...

VIX decoupled notably from stocks today...

Treasuries close the day mixed (30Y -1bps, 2Y +2bps) as traders sold bonds in Europe and boiught them in the US session

The USDollar closes the day up 0.4%

And commodities were generally mixed (gold down, silver unchanged, copper up) but crude was monkey-hammered

Oil pumped (yay they raised prices on Asia, Europe), then dumped (wait, they cut US prices!)

Of course, Japanese stocks didn't give a shit - all they want is a JPY that is crushed Venezuela-style...

Charts: Bloomberg

Bonus Chart: Commodity vol remains very elevated and FX vol is picking up again...

Bonus Bonus Chart: Asness on the unbridled idiocy of 'cash on the sidelines'