Morning Note: Commodities Working For Us -- And -- Lessons To Be Learned

Asia was bid virtually across the board last night, with the Philippines being the only market not making it nicely into the green. Europe's nothing to sneeze at either this morning, with 15 of the 19 bourses we track trading higher as I type. The U.S. on the other hand is somewhat of a mixed bag, with the Dow up 250 points, the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 ahead by .45% and 1.14% respectively, but with the Nasdaq Comp trading off by .4%.

The VIX (SP500 volatility) is off .61%, however VXN (Nasdaq volatility) is up 3.9%.

Oil's up 3.3%, gold's up $24, silver's up an incredible 6.4%, copper's up .7%, ag's mixed.

Per Sunday's video commentary (posted yesterday), commodities have been working for us of late, and, per the above, this morning is no exception. At the moment our core portfolio is up .85% on the morning, besting the S&P 500 by nearly double, and that of course includes our hedge which is down 4% as I type. Of course the day is very young, and, these days, that's an understatement!

I'll keep this one brief and close with my comment in our inner-office research chat last evening:

"...a lot of lessons will likely be taught here. Millions of brand new retail trading accts trading fractional shares at zero commissions capturing a consequential % of daily volume by newbies who believe they’ve found the path to riches says a lot about what’s “helping” tech right here. Be sure and listen to the podcast I linked to in today’s blog post."