From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
Momentum thrusts abound.
The other day on Twitter Spaces, JC made the point that we hadn’t seen many bullish thrusts this year. He was right. There have been a handful of obscure ones, but nothing really stands out. Until now…
Last week, the High-Yield Bond ETF $HYG registered its largest single-day rate of change since spring 2020.
Not bearish, right?
Then, yesterday, copper futures followed this up by rallying over 5% and booking their largest daily gain in almost a decade.
Also, not bearish.
These types of strong momentum thrusts tend to kick off new uptrends.
We just covered the action in HYG and highlighted the major bottoms that formed under similar momentum conditions.
Today, we’re going to review yesterday’s thrust in Dr. Copper and discuss what a sustained rally from here could mean for risk assets.
Let’s dive in!
Here’s a chart of copper futures with a one-day rate of change in the lower pane:
Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.
These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.
It has all the big names and more.
It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that which you can check out here.
The Hall of Famers is simple.
We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.
Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.
Here’s this week’s list:
*Click to enlarge view
And here’s how we arrived at it:
We filtered out any stocks that are below their May 10, 2021, high,...
That this is an unfamiliar and uncomfortable environment for many investors goes without saying. It was unforeseen to the extent that it is at odds with recent experience. For passive investors, the past decade (even through COVID) was one of only mild (in terms of degree and duration) interruptions to the underlying upward trend in their portfolios. Through this period, some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. Among these were diversification principles across and within asset classes. Commodity exposure withered to nothing and US investors were rewarded for indulging their home country bias. With the trend in the 60/40 benchmark portfolio now in its most significant downturn since the financial crisis of 2008/09, investor nerves are frayed, the mood is sour and patience is being tested. Adding to this frustration may be the reality that if one was indeed paying attention to expiring breadth thrust regimes, collapsing new high lists and expanding new low lists, some of this year’s roller coaster ride could perhaps have been avoided.
Chemicals and Fertilizing stocks have been among the sectors that seem to be "benefiting" from supply shocks in the system stemming from the war in Ukraine, as well as just general inflation touching the price of everything (except tech stocks, heyooooooooo!)
The team put out a "Trade of the Week" last week in this sector that now has my attention as the stock has held on to recent gains.
Stocks in the right sectors, making multi-year highs are stocks I can't ignore.
The largest insider buy on today's list is a Form 4 filing by Column Group, which reported the purchase of approximately $5.8 million in NGM Biopharmaceuticals $NGM.
Kevin Riley, the CEO and president of First Interstate BancSystem $FIBK, revealed a purchase of approximately 2,900 shares in the regional bank.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
Back in January, the big story was the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note printing new multi-year highs.
At the time, other benchmark yields worldwide were also resolving higher, completing large bases.
This was confirming evidence that added to our conviction US yields were headed higher and that we were in the early stages of a rising rate environment.
The confirmation from global yields proved valuable information.
Almost six months later, the US benchmark is just below 3.00%. As it pauses below a critical level, we again turn to overseas rates to get a read on the potential near-term direction of the 10-year yield.
And just like earlier in the year, they’re pointing higher.
Let’s take a look.
Here’s a chart of European 10-year yields: European rates are catching higher.
The yields on 10-year government bonds from France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and...
Key Takeaway: Risks to the economy are rising, though a recession is not a foregone conclusion at this point. Barring a dramatic and unlikely abatement in inflation pressures, the path of least resistance for interest rates is higher than the market is accounting for at this point. Rally attempts have been volatile but, so far at least, short-lived and as longer-term trends turn lower, many investors are dealing with an unfamiliar (and uncomfortable) environment. While moods have soured, positions are little changed. Overall these are the conditions under which bear markets can die and bull markets be re-born. The evidence at this point does not suggest that turn is at hand.