The stock market is messy, not trending higher, and frustrating many investors who haven't studied their market history.

This type of market environment, this time of the year, is EXACTLY what we should expect as investors.

If the market was NOT acting this way, then that would be weird.

Sometimes the market ignores seasonal trends. And that tends to be an important signal.

But, to be clear, this is definitely NOT one of those times.

The market is doing exactly what it should be doing.

See: Weakest Time of the Year

Over half the stocks on the NYSE are below their 200 day moving average. Same with the S&P500.

Here's what the index itself looks like near the lower end of this multi-month range:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street. These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats. In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money." Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Searching for trending markets?

Look no further than US treasury bonds!

Bonds across the curve are skidding to fresh contract lows as interest rates have a one-track mind…

Higher!

Check out the US 10-year yield posting fresh sixteen-year highs:

Not to be outdone, the 2-year yield just registered its highest level in seventeen years.

Interest rates across the curve are breaking to decade-plus highs in what has become a foot race.

It’s clear that the rising rate environment remains alive and well. An inverted yield curve keeps score, reminding us that shorter-duration yields are winning. 

But I honestly don’t care what area of the curve is leading. 

The US Stock Market is mostly one big fat mess, as is perfectly normal for this time of the year.

So no surprise there.

You can catch up on our reasoning in this short post.

But the bottom line is that we're now well into month #3 of this correction, since the new 52-week highs list peaked back in July.

The fact that markets are a mess is not a big deal. The bigger question is more about how long it will take to resolve, and which stocks are holding up the best during this seasonally weak period.

We discussed some really interesting setups during our LIVE Conference Call this week.

But today I want to focus on a space that is acting way better than the rest of its peers: Cyber Security.

While Tech stocks have generally been struggling since mid-summer, take a look at Palo Alto hanging in there just fine:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Sellers beware! 

The US Dollar Index $DXY is kicking ass and taking names.

The dollar has ripped higher ever since the July failed breakdown.

It’s now challenging fresh six-month highs and a critical former resistance area. 

An upside resolution for King Dollar will undoubtedly pressure risk assets – not the ideal scenario for stock market bulls.

And the dollar rally has plenty of room to run if the DXY is a reliable indicator...

Check out the number of consecutive up-weeks in the lower pane of the US Dollar Index chart:

Is this the world's most important trend that no one is talking about?

How many people do you know would tell you that stocks are already in their 4th year of a downtrend relative to commodities?

In other words, how many people do you know that would argue we are now in year 4 of a Commodities Supercycle?

Here's what this looks like:

This is the video recording of the September 2023 Mid-month Conference Call.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Precious metals represent an opportunity cost.

The entire complex – gold, silver, platinum, and palladium – has gone nowhere for the past few years.

Yet I can’t overlook the resilience of gold and silver as interest rates and the US dollar rise – two significant headwinds for these shiny rocks. 

Perhaps they deserve the benefit of the doubt.  

I believe they do.

But extending these lackluster metals with a favorable outlook does not equate to taking a long position.

It’s far from it.

Price must prove buying precious metals offers a rewarding proposition.

The following two intermarket ratios will undoubtedly rise if and when it does.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended September 15, 2023. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

The stock market correction continues....

What else would you expect during this seasonally weak period for stocks?

Historically, stocks do very well after mid-term elections. And that's exactly what happened.

Then in Q3 the struggle tends begin for a few months.

And that's precisely what we've seen this year. A perfectly normal market: