From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s Hot Corner is another short one.

The largest insider buy on the list comes in a Form 4 filing by Randall J. Weisenburger, independent director of Carnival Corporation & plc $CCL.

From the Desk of Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

The negative correlation between equities and the dollar remains intact, representing a fundamental piece of the current intermarket puzzle.

When the dollar strengthens, stocks tend to fall under selling pressure. On the flip side, stocks often enjoy strong bull runs when the dollar trends lower.

That's been the case for some time now. 

When we zoom in on this relationship, it becomes clear as day why the dollar should be on the mind of every stock market investor right now.

Below is a 15-minute chart of the S&P 500 Futures and the US Dollar Index over the last week.

From the Desk of Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

Banks are considered one of the world's most important industry groups as they provide an excellent overview of the economic environment and overall risk appetite toward markets.

After suffering a deep decline in Q1, prices carved out a tradable low, rebounded, and settled into a well-defined trading range.

However, these laggards continue to be a concern for the financial sector and the broader market as the charts look vulnerable heading into earnings season.

Here we have Money-Center Banks $KBE, Regional Banks $KRE, and Community Banks $QABA, all of which are below their AVWAPS from the May lows:

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s Hot Corner is a short one.

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by David Naemura, CFO of Neogen Corporation $NEOG.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Price doesn’t move in a straight line.

Just don’t tell the US dollar, which has managed to post positive gains for 11 straight weeks. 

But the US Dollar Index $DXY is sporting its deepest drawdown since mid-July – a mere 0.2% – as buyers catch their breath.

Five down days and counting have my attention, though it doesn’t shift my bullish bias for King Dollar.

Not yet!

Check out last week’s DXY candle:

Buyers drove prices higher over the course of last week only to succumb to selling pressure by Friday’s close. 

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach.

It's really been working for us!

One way we're doing this is by identifying the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

[12/4/23: moving stop to 550]

Today's trade is a bet on stocks making a run back towards all-time highs over the next 3-6 months. If you don't believe that's in the cards for stocks, then this trade isn't for you.

Unfortunately, its also a trade in a stock with a high trading price, so the margin requirement may perhaps be a bit onerous for some.

If you're in either camp, there's no shame in skipping this trade. It's not for everyone.

If I haven't scared you off yet, then keep reading...

Now is the time.

If stocks are going to go, this is when they usually do it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is only 9% from making a new all-time high.

So is the S&P500.

And what do I think the catalyst is going to be?

Let me rephrase that....

What do I think the catalyst needs to be?

A weaker US Dollar!

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Cormorant Asset Management.

The hedge fund reported a $3.5 million purchase of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics $MLTX stock, increasing its ownership stake to 15.20%.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

PPI data for September is coming out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The market could be a little volatile.