Market Outlook: Current Scenario Is Similar To The 'Flash Crash'

Last week saw a crazy full schedule of economic data accompanied by market volatility. This week has much quieter calendar. "The first important data release does not arrive until Thursday, when we get May retail sales," said Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna.

A quiet day unfolding with just Chicago Fed permadove on the wires today at 1pm, following some early pre-Japan market fireworks in the USDJPY and the silver complex, where a cascade of USDJPY margin calls, sent silver to its lowest in years as someone got carted out feet first following a forced liquidation. This however did not stop the Friday ramp higher in the USDJPY from sending the Nikkei225, in a delayed response, to a level surpassing the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the first time in years.

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors. Black Swans Are Having Their Necks Broken (The Reformed Broker)

While many will shrug at yet another "fat finger", we thought it useful to 'know' - as opposed to 'guess' - what really drove a more-than-10% flash-crash in Symantec stock this morning. As Nanex illustrates so clearly, in less than a second, over 500,000 shares were traded in a waterfall across 13 exchanges (and who knows how many dark pools). This triggered a circuit breaker which halted the stock trading for 5 minutes and when it resumed... it had recovered all those losses.

By Michael Johnston:Just a few years ago there were only a handful of bond ETFs available to U.S. investors, and almost all of them focused on securities from U.S. issuers denominated in U.S. dollars. One of the most noteworthy innovations to shape the ETF industry over the last several years has been a significant growth in international bond products; as issuers have worked around concentration-related issues and other hurdles, the universe of bond ETPs targeting markets beyond U.S. borders has grown tremendously.

By Jarred Cummans:Today marked the end of a tumultuous week that saw high volumes accompanied by high volatility. The week saw poor trading days until Thursday came, when all hell broke loose. A massive sell off led to losses of more than 3% in most major benchmarks, as investors hit the panic button in reaction to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s speech and policy decisions.

By Price Headley: Not only was it the first winning week in the last five, it was the biggest winning week in the last eight. Oh, it still came nowhere close to undoing the damage/carnage seen over the prior four weeks – a 16.5% drubbing – but it's at least a sign that not all hope is lost.

By Price Headley: We knew we were due for a dip after the heroic rally three weeks ago; last week we got it. Still, it wasn't enough to snap the overall uptrend, nor the spirits of the bulls … traders ended things on Friday in a buying mood, not wanting to head into the weekend empty-handed in case the budget crisis was resolved and/or Europe doesn't fall into the ocean.