Sure smells like trouble. Precious metals soaring, oil likewise now back around $67, bond yields (and therefore conventional mortgage rates) marching up every day, US dollar falling against other major currencies.

Of course it is also the end of the quarter and the program traders are busy with their characteristic manipulations to jam the market and optimize their bonuses. As Bill Fleckenstein plaintively asks every quarter as this charade goes on: “Where is the SEC?” (Answer: so long as the market goes up, they look the other way). But when this pressure stops as they have to return the borrowed money, what then?

I think I hear trombones.