Well, that was interesting. Stocks fell hard. Bond yields spiked. And the U.S. dollar got crushed. While this may sound like just another round of algo-induced hysteria, the bottom line is this is not supposed to happen. In other words, stocks, bonds, and the dollar don't all fall at the same time.

For those of you keeping score at home, the S&P 500 fell 1.44% yesterday, the Dow dropped 252 points, and the NASDAQ fell 1.67%. Then the yield on the U.S. 10-year bond rose by 0.15%. While this may not sound like much, the move represented a 7% increase in yield - in one day. And the U.S. dollar fell 3.1% against the euro, which was the biggest one-day decline against the euro since March 2009. Ouch.

According to WSJ, this was the first time since 1999 that the S&P 500 index and the dollar each dropped at least 1% and the 10-year Treasury yield rose at least 0.1 percentage point - all on the same day. So, no folks, Thursday's action was not just another day at the office.

Draghi Disappoints

The reasoning behind the wild market gyrations appears to be two-fold. First, Super Mario (aka ECB President Mario Draghi) failed to deliver the goods at yesterday's ECB meeting. The market had expected a 20 basis point reduction in rates (technically, we're talking about the rate charged to banks for parking funds at the ECB), and it only got 10 bps.

Next, the market had expected a significant increase in the ECB's QE program. Instead it got a milk toast response. As such, disappointment was the word of the day.

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