Carrot and Stick

The spike higher in rates today, as seen by TLT selling off rather aggressively, is sure to bring out plenty of calls for equities to buckle under that pressure. 

On that note, it is worth remembering that equities are often seen as the, shall we say, less intelligent younger brother of the credit market, where the latter usually has an epiphany about a major macro move long before stocks figure the puzzle out--Case in point: Go back to very early-2007 with some of the credit market issues taking place. But equites did not top out until October of that year, and really did not start a bear market until 2008. 

Thus, we do not want to extrapolate too much, just yet, from the rising rates in terms of rewards and punishments to various markets, assuming rates actually keep rising until the next major Fed event. 

Overall, the small caps today were the main story for stocks. However, plenty of tech action was impressive, too.

More after the bell.