The Russell 2000 tumbled to its worst month since May 2012. 30 Year bond yield had the 2nd best month in a year (with the entire bond complex lower and curve flatter for 5th month in a row). Gold rallied for the month as high-yield credit spreads widened for the 2nd month in a row. US economic growth collapsed. But what really matters... what is key for the headline-makers, story-tellers, and asset-gatherers... is that the Dow Jones Industrial touched new record highs. On the day, early equity weakness gave way to exuberant buying as the Fed admitted its forecast for Q1 was shit but everything it says about the future is spot on - stocks urged, the Dow hit new all-time-highs (and green for the year) but once that level was hit, stocks began to fade but were rescued by the always-happy-to-help 330 Ramp which closed us at record highs and green year-to-date. By the close, the day saw Stocks Up, Bonds Up, Gold Unch, USD Down

Quite a divergence today...

And on the day, Trannies spiked at the open as everything else dropped... the post Chicago PMI rip stalled as Europe closed, then the Fed provided absolutely fucking nothing to juystify stocks rallying...

As VIX was banged lower...

But Year-to-Date, Gold remains the winner...

Year-to-date, the Dow managed to close green YTD

April left the Russell the big loser - worst month since May 2012

Here's April for the S&P Sectors...

April was a very different month for credit markets with HY notably wider and not at all excitd about the most recent pop in stocks... this is absolutely not sustainable - you can't keep levering firms to do buybacks if the credit market for highly levered firms begins to get saturated and costs of capital surge... where have seen this before?

Treasuries were mixed with notable flattening across the complex in April...

The Treasury curve flattened for the 5th month in a row

Commodities were mixed on the month with gold closing in the green

Charts: Bloomberg

Bonus Chart: What was the market discounting a year ago?

Bonus Bonus Chart: Seems like Treasuries are on to something with the macro fundamentals... and stocks ramp on hope and dump on reality...