CHART OF THE DAY: Smoking Hot Japanese Mothers

You've probably heard that the Nikkei has been one of the hottest stock markets in the world.

That's in large part due to the expansionary policies of new PM Shinzo Abe.

But what's really impressive is the action among Japanese small caps, which trade on an index known as Mothers (Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks).

That index, as SocGen pointed out this morning, has been going completely bananas, and hardly anyone has noticed. They're up as a group nearly 50% this year!

Aggressive buying of small caps is a sign of aggressive risk appetite, and arguably exuberance.

Watching the Mothers fly like this is a great sign of how animal spirits are taking over.