LiveWire

The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX—also known as Wall Street's fear gauge—has fallen to a fresh pandemic-era low. The VIX dropped to 15.59 on Thursday morning, beating a recent low of 15.65 on June 11. The index, which is based on volatility expectations drawn from options on the S&P 500, tends to fall when stocks are grinding gently higher—and it tends to jump when stocks plummet. It hit an all-time record of 82.69 on March 16 last year when the Covid-19 panic was at its worst. It is now at its lowest levels since February last year when it got as low as 13.7.

Retail and food services sales are outpacing inventories. The of ratio retail and food services sales over retail inventories went down under 0.65 to jump above one in less than a year.

On its fourth fiscal quarter earnings conference call, Nike executives casually mentioned Jordan brand sales rose an impressive 31% to $5 billion for the company's just completed fiscal year. For a bit of perspective, the Jordan brand now makes up greater than 11% of Nike's overall business. Sales surged 141% from last year, and 29% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 (aka pre-pandemic). Digital sales soared 147% from the fourth quarter of 2019. Even China sales — where Nike has been swept up into consumer protests over its stance on Xinjiang — increased in all product categories in the quarter (led by a 34% increase in equipment sales).

Investors in China are betting on small-cap growth shares to reignite returns as a shift away from blue-chips starts gaining traction. While the mainland benchmark CSI 300 is slightly down over the past month, the tech-heavy ChiNext Index is up 6% and the Nasdaq-style Star Board 50 Index has gained 12%. An MSCI Inc. gauge of small-cap growth stocks in China has gained 2%, in stark contrast to its economically sensitive value share equivalent which is down 6.5%.

Private funds in China on average returned 5.4% as of end-May in 2021, versus a gain of 43% for the whole of 2020, according to data from Ge Shang Wealth Advisory Co.