As I forecasted Wednesday, the VIX was forced into an afternoon move, and as it broke lower, the markets have seen much more comfortable levels since.  Though inflation data remains somewhat mixed despite this morning's core report, consumer wage and spending has outweighed further subprime fears, and thus we've seen two days in the black since.  All of this despite the ECB's recent comments forcing a knight's fork on the Fed between the dollar and equity markets.

    21 of 26 categories ended the day black, with 8 of those 21 up more than 1% and 15 of those 21 up more than 0.5%.  Only 2 of the 5 down categories were down more than 0.5%. 

    Those categories with the best dollar inflow on Thursday were small cap, energy, emerging markets, and large caps, in that order.  Those with the most outflow were short funds, following by much more marginal losses in real estate and Japan. 

    As far as percentage category gains, the BRIC regions took the cake, with China, Latin America, and Russia all at or above 2% on the day.  Other big gainers were energy, transports, Europe, and infrastructure.  Those down most percentage-wise were short, real estate, and Japan, though only short and real estate saw selling with any conviction.

Dollar-Weighted Category Return