The avalanche of soft data has pounded the market like a game of whack-a-mole, and even this morning, the pounding continued.

Manufacturing PMI slipped back to contraction with employment plunging and prices surging.

But a funny thing happened when the market stumbled out the gate – buyers emerged led by Consumer Discretionary (XLY) stocks.

The biggest gainer is Tesla (TSLA), which deep-pocketed organizers have assaulted. I’m not an EV fan, but what has happened to this company is despicable.  Most folks vandalizing and intimidating dealers and owners of these vehicles have never built a thing. 

Shutting Down the Bears

Lots of bears and foes of Trump gloated after the close yesterday that the intraday reversal was already over (pointing to futures) and was just a phenomenon of late pension fund buying.

ZeroHedge: "To dampen the buy-the-dip tactical buy case even further, remember that that big quarter-end rebalancing flow now is [mostly] over. They really waited until the last 10 minutes. Yesterday's market on close buy imbalance (for pension buying) was the highest on record."

A strong close today ahead of Liberation Day would be a blow to their overarching doom and gloom messaging.