Despite all the global worries, the U.S. stock market feels like it wants to go up. Despite notable selling pressure at the open, with particular weakness in Energy stocks, the broad market has been slowly lifting through the morning.
Many traders waiting for concerns overseas to show up in a flight-to-safety trade that would benefit U.S. stocks.
The Volatility Index (VIX), which opened north of 17, has been drifting lower, and was briefly below 16.
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Several ETFs are seeing above-normal volume. Emerging markets are notably weak on Brazil and Hong Kong issues. Brazil (EWZ) down over 5 percent, Hong Kong ETF (EWH) down 3.8 percent, China (GXC) down 2.6 percent, Emerging Markets ETF (EEM), which is 10 percent composed of Brazilian stocks, down 2.1 percent.
Commodity ETFs also active: Market Vectors Steel (SLX) and Coal (KOL) are both down over one percent on heavy volume.
One part of the market showing some stability: High yield. iShares High Yield ETF (HYG), the largest of the high-yield ETFs, started weak right out of the gate but has slowly come back, now down only 0.3 percent.
Speaking of bonds, there is lots of speculation about knock-on effects from Bill Gross leaving PIMCO. Some investors do appear to be moving assets around: , the largest bond ETF, already trading more than 100 percent of its average volume in the last 30 days. PIMCO's Total Return ETF (BOND), up 0.2 percent, is also trading north of 100 of its average 30-day volume at 10:30 a.m. ET.
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Is PIMCO selling assets to meet anticipated redemptions? It is clearly getting redemptions, and while it may be selling assets it does have a huge cash position. On June 30, Total Return Fund had $220 billion in assets under management, but it had a 19 percent cash position. That is $44 billion; even with $20 billion in redemptions, it can cover it with the cash position, so it's not clear how much actual bonds it will be selling.