Precious metals have been on an absolute tear this year.

One group of stocks I am watching closely right now is biotechs.

Despite the industry's lackluster performance over the previous three months, I think biotechs are brewing up something big.

Here’s the equally-weighted SPDR Biotech ETF $XBI.

Consumer Discretionary stocks are a reliable gauge of risk appetite and market health.

Consider these as automobiles, retail, and homebuilding—industries that offer products and services consumers purchase with their discretionary income.

When investors favor these stocks, it indicates a higher level of risk-seeking behavior.

One simple way to assess them is by comparing their performance to the broader market.

The chart below illustrates Large Cap Consumer Discretionary Sector relative to the S&P 500, potentially forming a major 10-year top.

Bitcoin is flirting with a historic breakout, sitting just a few bucks shy of fresh all-time highs.

Everywhere I look, I’m seeing the perfect setup for a new leg higher from crypto.

Risk appetite is heating up across the board, and the strongest tokens are leaving the station. 

We have a wide-variety of vehicles to choose from to play this bullish thesis.

Whether you look at Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or the crypto miners, they are all offering asymmetrical risk vs reward opportunities.

And if we're talking about catch-up trades, Marathon Digital Holdings $MARA is the one to watch.

Bitcoin is on the verge of resolving higher from a massive consolidation phase.

This isn’t just a short-term consolidation; it’s one of those bases that typically marks the beginning or onset of a fresh bull market. 

These are the periods where we see altcoins multiplying, meme coins surging, and laser eyes all over the internet.

We’ve witnessed this before, and I believe we’re on the cusp of experiencing it again.

It’s also worth noting that these bullish instances have clustered around the holiday season in the past. We’re there now.

It’s all set up so perfectly for another crypto Christmas.

Take a moment to review previous cycles, and you will see just what I mean.

Here’s a zoomed out look at Bitcoin, effectively absorbing all the overhead supply at the upper bounds of the range.

Health Care stocks were under pressure again this week with the large cap SPDR $XLV falling about 3%.

XLV is now the worst performing sector SPDR over the trailing 1-month and 3-month timeframe.

When we look at Health Care on an equal weight basis, the group looks even more vulnerable.

Here's a chart of the Invesco Equal Weight Health Care ETF $RSPH: 

The US Dollar Index $DXY has been on a tear since the turn of the month, bouncing hard off support. 

Typically, a strong dollar would suggest a defensive tone for risk assets. But not this time.

Despite the dollar's impressive run, equities are holding their ground and showing serious resilience. Just last week, the S&P 500 closed at all-time highs.

And when you dig into the chart, DXY is still stuck in the middle of a range

The precious metals complex is ripping higher like never before.

Gold continues to stair-step higher, achieving new all-time highs, and now silver is joining the party.

A major catch-up trade is currently underway as silver breaks out of a multi-year base to its highest level in over a decade.

The chart below shows the correlation between these two metals over the past 15 years.

When I think about the strongest stocks, I’m not just looking for outperformance across different timeframes. The strongest stocks should be back to our through their old bull market highs.

Let’s discuss the materials sector in this light.

The bubble chart below shows the change from the 2021-2022 highs on the Y axis and the 3-month relative change on the X axis. I'm graphing all the materials industry groups to see how they stack up.

When I think about bonds, credit spreads are always at the top of my mind because they provide an excellent gauge of market health.

We simply measure the yield difference between a Treasury bond and a High-yield bond with the same maturity.

Another way to do it is by looking at the prices of the High-Yield Bond ETF $HYG compared to the Treasury Bond ETF $IEI:

Today, I joined my friend Patrick on Chart Request Live, discussing all the ticker symbols from the chat.

Click here to watch the replay.

One major topic we discussed at the end of the show was crypto and some equity vehicles to gain exposure to it.

One that stood out was MicroStrategy $MSTR, which continues to show impressive relative strength.

Chinese equities are surging like never before in history.

The iShares China Large-Cap ETF $FXI rallied over 18%, marking its best week ever.

We call this a "momentum thrust". Such extreme readings often precede rallies and tend to occur at the beginning of new bull cycles.

Here's the FXI chart with the 1-week rate of change in the lower pane:

As you can see, this is happening after a test of a critical support level, right at a shelf of former lows.