Tomorrow Monthly Op-EX

Don't forget that tomorrow is January monthly op-ex, which means it's very likely that we have a max-pain op-ex pin and very likely we open near today's close. The pin usually will hold until about 2 p.m.

I'm not sure what role 3 year lows in ES liquidity might play, but we'll find out.

We also have 3  F_E_D speakers tomorrow, the recent Kocherlakota and Williams (Doves) who have come out against raising rates this year and James Bullard who has moved the market at least 3 times up and down and has ZERO problem turning from a dove to a raging hawk in less than a month as he did in September with "We should be willing to remove accommodation" at the September highs, then   "A logical response at this juncture is to delay the end of QE" at the October lows and 30 days later to a 180 degree about face with "Inflation expectations have rebounded since mid-October".

Really? The F_E_D's forecasts for inflation are so liquid they change every 3 weeks?

 I believe Bullard is one of the finest examples of my theory which I think he proves, The Plunge Protection and Market Correction Team

Yellen's own statement carried by Bloomberg is along the very same lines (from this morning's A.M. Update)...

"Yellen has signaled she wants to look past short-term market fluctuations and place economic outlook at center of policy making; to succeed, she must wean investors from the notion that the Fed will bail them out if their bets go bad"

At least the normally rambling Yellen who made Greenspan seem clear and articulate, is consistent. 

I'm not sure what the events for each F_E_D speaker are tomorrow, but with the market set up the way it is, recent statements by Williams (more dovish than usual) and Kocherlakota and Bullard willing to go whichever way Wall St. needs him to depending on which way they've got their cycle set up (long or short), I'd expect a them to come out in harmony against raising rates, something quite at odds with Yellen's recent comments clearly hinting they are coming (rate hikes).