Steve Wynn's Elbow > The People's Elbow

As the story goes, Steve Wynn bought a Picasso for $45 million in 1997. He then put his elbow through the work of art, causing over $90,000 in damages.

This story of his damage, however, actually added value to the painting. Eventually, the painting was sold for $155 million in 2013.

Today's stock market action in WYNN conjured up those memories, as Wynn once again flexes his business acumen in buying one million shares of his own stock amid increased shorts in the float. WYNN is up handily today, but still has much work to do to prove a major bottom, from a technical standpoint. Nonetheless, his reputation packs as big a punch as anyone's. 

Since we are on the topic of high-end art auctions, recall the long-standing analysts that Sotheby's tends to coincide with broad market cycles, as seen on the multi-decade BID chart, below.

Clearly, this cycle has diverged, with BID back down to its October 2011 lows, while the S&P is not too far from all-time highs. Indeed, something has got to give, if you believe there is still a correlation between the high-end and, more importantly, the aspirational high-end consumer and the economy/market at-large. 

As easy as it may be to shoot this notion down, the proof is simply in the pudding as we can see, below, just how pronounced BID's prior run-ups and crashes have been in lockstep with the market.