Jeff Macke is the guy I turn to whenever I have questions about the Consumer. Anything retail, restaurants, internet sales, he's the one we want to listen to. Jeff and I have known each other for many years and are friends with a lot of the same people. Here's an old clip I found of him and I talking about Gold & Silver back in January 4, 2012.

In this episode we talk about the restaurant stocks, pharmacies, which areas he wants to avoid and which ones he wants to own. He says the pair trade of the decade could very well be: Long Shaquille O'neil (Papa Johns $PZZA) and Short Kanye West (The Gap $GPS). This was a really fun conversation. I picked up some good ideas and had a few laughs.

I hope you enjoy!

Copper continues to rip to the upside, but one chart suggests that the entire Base Metals' space is making upward progress.

Today we're taking a look at that chart and what its implications are for Equities going forward.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

For the week ended Friday, July 10, 2020:

Every week we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

This week we're going to highlight our US Index and Sector ETF tables, and focus on the laggards as they are giving us the most important information for the current market environment. Let's dive into it.

No surprises here... The Nasdaq $QQQ outperformed aggressively once again last week, booking a +4.7% gain while Mid, Small, and Micro-Caps were all lower. The Nasdaq is the only US Index that is higher over the trailing month.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

I'm really enjoying these virtual Happy Hours I've been doing with my friends. You guys seem to enjoy them so I'm happy to keep recording these chats. I'm having the conversations anyway right?

Stay tuned, I have some fun videos coming up with Bart in San Diego and another one with Joe Fahmy & Brian Shannon.

You can catch up on Happy Hours w/ Traders here.

The fine gentlemen at All Star Charts have released with latest Quarterly Playbook with themes to be aware of for the next three months, as well as trade ideas within sectors and individual stocks that are setting up. Head over here for a deep dive and great read.

One idea that stood out to me is an e-commerce company focused on pet supplies and medications. No.... not pets.com. LOL

Did you think it would be a historic stock market crash and a devastating global pandemic that would finally spark the rotation into emerging market stocks?

Yea me neither.

But here we are. 6 weeks of outperformance by Emerging Markets. Is this just another blip in the long-term downtrend for EM, particularly relative to US Equities?

We discussed this all in our NEW Q3 Playbook that was just published over the weekend.

Here's some perspective on the whole thing:

In early May we outlined the "Five Bull Market Barometers" we're watching to identify the beginning of a new bull market in stocks.

If you haven't read our initial post linked above, we'd encourage you to check it out so you understand what the rationale behind these five indicators is.

Now, let's see where these indicators ended the week.

This is our ASC Research Q3 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market, and the second half covers International Stock Markets and FICC (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies).

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Responses to this week's Mystery Chart were mixed. Some were betting on a breakout and buying while others wanted to fade this against the prior highs.

Others were waiting for more information, which is likely what we'd be doing. Thanks to everyone for participating.

But this chart is already packed with information. Let's dive in and talk about what it is.