It's the weekly bond market edition of What the FICC?

Today we're tracking European yields for insight into the next big move in US interest rates.

Check it out!

From the Desk of Ian Culley @Ianculley

The strong US dollar and higher interest rates have dominated the conversation this year.

But the direction of the US Dollar Index $DXY has changed, breaking its year-to-date trendline earlier this month. 

Will interest rates follow?

Not yet! So far, the uptrend remains intact for the five-, 10-, and 30-year yields. We have to give these trends the benefit of the doubt, for now.

Despite their persistence, it seems more a matter of when not if rates do eventually roll over.

Based on information from the US bond market and developed-market European yields, it could happen sooner than you might expect.

Let’s break it down.

First, we can’t dismiss the middle-long end of the curve holding above year-to-date trendlines.

This is the video recording of the December 1st, 2022, Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche.

12/1/22 2:00 PM ET

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

The Scales are unchanged this month, continuing to tip toward risk and away from opportunity. 

A strong finish to November has renewed hopes that the 2022 bear market is moving from present reality to past experience. The weight of the evidence argues against jumping to that conclusion just yet. Simply put, we have not seen enough market strength to justify looking past the still present macro concerns. The evidence remains cautious and so do we. 

Our Weight of the Evidence Dashboard fills in the details and includes a few charts that have our attention heading into December.

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

Markets are seriously complicated.

There's an endless number of participants, countless investment vehicles, and a million ways to analyze money flow.

Here at All Star Charts, we analyze thousands of individual markets and securities, all belonging to various asset classes. It goes without saying that we collectively look at thousands of charts every week.

There's no substitute for setting aside time to go through our chartbooks and putting in the work.

But, every now and again, certain environments and conditions dictate simplicity. Sometimes, we can step back and identify the major themes in just a handful of charts.

Indeed, for crypto markets, it has been rather simple.

The argument has been to be long if Bitcoin's above its prior-cycle highs and to be patient if the opposite is true.

But I'll pose that there's an equally significant data point that we'd be irresponsible to ignore.

I continue to wonder what people are so angry about.

More and more stocks keep going up.

Fewer and fewer are going down.

More sectors are participating.

More countries are acting strong.

What's the problem?

The CEO, the CFO, and the chief technology officer of Hillman Solutions Corp $HLMN all filed Form 4s reporting insider buys.

The three C-suite offers combined bought $1.5 million worth of HLMN shares.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

That was a big move yesterday. A little digestion would be beneficial.

We broke the 200-day moving average in the $SPX. The next leg up is at 4,120.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

But we also highlight lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

I’m pinch-hitting on the crypto note today.

It’s not so much because JC and Louis needed me to step in. It’s because I wanted to share something with you. 

I want to discuss a potential mean-reversion trade opportunity in Coinbase $COIN.

I think it’s one of the best ways to express a bullish tactical thesis on cryptocurrency markets right now.

I know that’s really not saying a lot these days. The asset class is a mess. “Disaster” might be a better descriptor, particularly as it relates to the FTX meltdown.

In the aftermath of its collapse, how can we trust any of the crypto exchanges right now? Why the hell would we want to buy Coinbase? Isn’t it just the next domino to fall?

Hear me out…

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

What a day.

The indices rallied off of Powell’s speech, and the $SPX crossed the 200-day moving average. The SPX almost closed its gap at 4,083 back on Sept. 12.

We can trend higher into the 4,120 mark in time.