In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.
False Start of Failed Breakout?
The markets have been a bifurcated mess for more than a year now. During this time the relative strength from commodities and commodity-related stocks has stood out. Both have been on a tear and continue to rip higher. But despite the broad strength in commodities, Copper has gone nowhere since many risk assets peaked in May of last year.
Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.
By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.
Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:
* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.
There's been so little to discuss and so few actionable trades that our priority right now is waiting for reliable signals to suggest a resolution from this trading range.
Price action in most crypto assets is still range-bound. It appears 46,000 is the critical level for bulls to reclaim.
There are many mixed signals, so we have no read on current price action as of the writing of this report.
In light of global events, we're seeing significant market reactions all over the place. And it seems like the narrative changes on a daily basis. Now more then ever, as a Trader, is it important to turn off the news and follow price. Price doesn't lie.
One trend that has been signficant and showing no signs of stopping is the bullish breakouts we're seeing in energy, commodities, and materials.
And today's name is one of the bellwethers in the space that is beginning to breakout from a multi-year base.
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 Ian Culley @Ianculley
Commodities have been on a tear, with the Bloomberg Commodity Index recently posting its best week since 1970 and the CRB Index rallying more than 25% year to date.
Despite the broad strength from commodities, Dr. Copper – a key economic barometer – has yet to break out like so many of its peers.
After making a new all-time high last Friday, buyers were unable to sustain the move, and price retreated into its former range.
While it’s great to see so many other contracts trending higher, bulls really need to see copper join the mix. If this is truly a new commodity supercycle, it better break out from this consolidation.
It is that important to the overall asset class.
Let’s break down the various technical scenarios for copper’s recent move and discuss what they mean for the entire space.
First, the move could have been a premature breakout:
The hunt for options premiums to sell continues. And with VIX showing signs that it might want to give up the 30 level for a little bit, we may have the trend of implied volatility mean-reversion beginning to become a wind in our sails.
A quick perusal of the most liquid ETFs options markets that I follow revealed a surprising sector at the top of the list: Utilities. And the recent price action suggests to me we may have seen the $XLU ETF get a bit ahead of itself, and it could be due for a little consolidation.
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.
Stocks attempted to rally this week. Following Tuesday’s abortive attempt to regain the considerable ground lost on Monday, the S&P 500 posted its best daily gain since 2020 on Wednesday (+2.65). The S&P 500 is still down on the week as I write this, but if the right headlines cross the wire this afternoon, anything could happen. That’s the kind of environment we are in. One filled with plenty of day-to-day noise. Stepping back, the S&P 500 attempted to rally off the lows in both January and February as well. Then, lower highs were ultimately followed by lower lows. The consistent theme as the indexes have moved lower off of their early year highs has been weakness beneath the surface. The number of stocks making new lows has been persistently higher than the number of stocks making new highs. When that changes, and we see evidence of meaningful improvement in breadth, we can take a more constructive view of rally attempts. For they deserve skepticism. Let’s make it a mantra (or at least a T-shirt): “No Thrust? No Trust!”
