Speaking of the markets...

VIX CHART

LONG BOND FUTURES CHART

Speaking of the markets, have any of you juxtaposed a price chart of, say, the long bond futures against the VIX, the CBOE's SPX Volatility Index? Now I don't usually make stock predictions or anything like that on this blog. But it sure looks to me like the patterns are similar, but with the bonds "leading."

In other words, it looks possible to me that volatility could spike in the coming weeks, playing "catch up" to the bonds (which are trading around their panic levels from earlier this year). And of course, volatility spikes are usually accompanied by sharp stock market declines. Just some food for thought.

On the positive side of things, the initial Large Hadron Collider experiment apparently did not create a black hole that would swallow the earth. So we do have something to be thankful for this fine morning.