And here we go again. Even though Washington has said repeatedly that it will not accept a “partial” trade deal, equities have roared higher since China has said they would be open to a partial trade deal. I’ve lost count how many times we’ve gone through this charade. Now, listen, I understand Washington could agree to a partial deal, since their words don’t mean crap. But, still, if we take them at their word, why would China’s “capitulation” mean anything? In any case, the algos love it:

Thus, a large part of yesterday’s drop was undone based on no meaningful news. Of course, we all know that a surprise announcement as to a deal – – even a partial one – – could cause the ES to rip higher God-knows-how-much. At the moment, we are all getting jerked around by tweets, innuendo, folklore, and rumor. It won’t be long before the algos are interpreting facial gestures from politicians to try to gauge future market direction.

I remain spread out amongst a huge variety of small positions. I intend to ride out this insane week, and I certainly look forward to the delegation getting back on the jet to China, deal or no deal. And, as before, I consider what’s going on with the banks to be far more important than these minute-to-minute algo jerks on the ES.