From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

It’s been impossible to ignore the strength in commodities this year.

The CRB Index is up more than 50% over the trailing 52 weeks. During this same period, the S&P 500 is up 32%, and bonds ($TLT) are down more than 8%.

Commodities are the clear leaders.

With breakouts from some of the most commonly observed contracts -- crude oil, copper, and natural gas -- more investors are coming around to the idea that commodities are a viable asset class.

Now that the buzz surrounding this once-forgotten corner of the market is growing, we’re seeing many commodities run into overhead supply zones. We think it would make sense for these contracts to consolidate here. Following such explosive moves off last year’s lows, some sideways action at resistance would be normal behavior.

Let’s look at a few charts that are at logical levels to digest gains.

First up is natural gas futures:

I'm sorry that I had to miss yesterday's Town Hall.

I had a great slide deck prepared (ASC+Plus subscribers can click below for access) and was excited to walk through it with everyone. We are seeing a breakout in our risk on / risk off ratio, continued improvement in sector-level trends, and evidence that sentiment in Emerging Markets looks pretty washed out. While there may be opportunities for following strength and rotating away from US equity exposure, Germany (which is at a 17+ year low versus the S&P 500) is not one of them. I'm sure we will have a chance to talk through many of these things in the days ahead.

As some of you know by now, rather than spending the morning and early-afternoon getting ready for our Town Hall conversation, I was saying a final good-bye to the gentlest of spirits and an ever-faithful friend. Our family dog, Banjo, had a health emergency from which the vet told us there was no reasonable chance of recovery.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Federal Reserve officials have talked about the benefit from having well-anchored inflation expectations. It provides flexibility in setting policy even as recent inflation readings have moved to their highest levels in years (or in some cases, decades). In fact, in recent speeches several have made the case that inflation expectations becoming un-anchored would prompt a meaningful re-evaluation of current policy. That now seems to be the case. Data from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers shows 1-year inflation expectations have risen to their highest level since 2008 and the pace of increase is its fastest in nearly two decades. Survey responses can be cheap, but market-based expectations reflect actual positioning and prices. Market data shows that the 10-year breakeven inflation rate has reached its 2011 and 2012 peaks and it hasn’t been higher in over 15 years. The inflation expectations discussion could be moving from “if they remain well-anchored” to ”since they have become unmoored.”

If you take the US Dollar out of the equation, it's a much different story for Gold.

While Gold continues to struggle below its 2011 highs, when priced in other currencies, it's been consolidating well above those former highs.

This is the video recording of our October 22, 2021, All Star Charts Crypto Weekly Strategy Session.

We debuted a new scan recently- The Outperformers.

The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.

The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge 

September saw significant selling pressure in equity markets. The S&P 500 suffered its worst drawdown since last year, and many of the major indexes made a lower low. But when we look under the surface, it really wasn’t that bad. 

We didn’t get an expansion in new lows to confirm the new lows in price. Instead, these readings remained muted across most of the major averages in the US.

Since then, the bulls have regained control. Breadth has improved throughout October as the indexes have rallied back toward their former highs. Although we haven’t seen a real expansion in participation at the index level, things have definitely been moving in the right direction.

Let's talk about it.

Here’s a look down the cap scale at new 52-week highs for all three S&P indexes, from large to small:

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

• German pastor and Nazi resistor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If the train you are on isn’t going where you want to go, changing locations on the train is of little use. You are still going to wind up in the wrong place. 

Sometimes, we believe a train is heading to one place, when it’s actually going somewhere else. Or, after boarding, our view of where we would like to go changes entirely. In either case, we are on the wrong train and need to think about how to get off. 

Bitcoin officially made an all-time yesterday, eclipsing its first-half highs around 65,000.

The importance of this cannot be overstated.

The question is whether or not Bitcoin can stick the landing. It's likely to be a process.

Our Top 5 Crypto Index is also on the verge of completing this major base.

Over longer timeframes, this price action is far from bearish.

Over the last month, we've argued that there's evidence Bitcoin could lead the altcoins.

We've seen this play out, but it looks like Bitcoin could be due for a rest relative to its counterparts.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

On Tuesday night we held our October Monthly Conference Call, which Premium Members can access and re-watch here.

In this post, we’ll do our best to summarize it by highlighting five of the most important charts and/or themes we covered, along with commentary on each.

Let’s get right into it!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

It’s no secret. 

As investors, we've been rewarded for buying stocks and commodities over bonds for more than a year now. And this will most likely remain the case, as more evidence suggests we’re in an environment that favors risk assets.

The copper/gold ratio hitting new seven-year highs, AUD/JPY testing its year-to-date highs, and cyclical stocks assuming leadership all point to an increasingly risk-on tone.

But for some of us, it’s not as simple as selling bonds and walking away. In some scenarios, we must have exposure to the bond market.

If that’s the case, we want to focus on the riskier areas of the market, just like we’re doing with other asset classes.

Let’s look at a few charts that direct our attention to the strongest areas of the bond market.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.