Every weekend we publish simple performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with brief commentary on each.
As this is something we do internally on a daily basis, we believe sharing it with clients will add value and help them better understand our top-down approach. We use these tables to provide insight into both relative strength and market internals.
This week we want to highlight our US Equity Index and Sector tables, as they are both showing continued evidence to support some of the trends we've discussed recently.
There has been a lot of risk in the stock market over the past 2 months and that still has not changed. Things are getting worse, not better. I tried to emphasize in this week's Live Call that we have NOT seen any evidence to suggest that the worst of the selling is behind us.
We've been inundated with emails from Financial Advisors and traders all over the world. From New York to London, South Africa, Malaysia, Laguna Beach they keep coming in. We work really hard and it is so nice to see how much we've been able to help people, both pros and every day hard working individuals. Thank you from all of us at Allstarcharts! We don't take these notes for granted even for a second.
We know times are tough for some people right now. I have friends and family that lost their jobs today. I'm seeing it outside of markets.
We got a lower low in equities, followed by continued weakness rather than stabilization. Heavy cash positions and a defensive posture remains best in this historically volatile environment.
Given how quickly things are moving, there are three charts on our screen that will help identify when a shift in the market is occuring.
We look at a variety of intermarket ratios that span just about every asset class in order to get a read on interest rates. Here is one that we don't discuss too often, but its relationship with the 10-Year Yield is obvious from looking at the chart below.
The S&P High Beta/S&P Low Volatility (SPHB/SPLV) ratio made significant lows around the same time and place as the 10-Year has several times over the past decade.
This is the big question going through the minds of market participants all over the world right now. What's next? Have we seen the worst of it? Or is this just the eye of the storm?
I remember as a kid I was 10 years old when a huge storm hit Miami. Hurricane Andrew was a massive category 5 storm that was supposed to hit Orlando but in the middle of the night changed directions and decided to make a beeline towards my house. So the eye of the storm actually went over our heads:
We've been very clear about how we wanted to avoid owning stocks this month. Fortunately, bonds have been the beneficiaries of the relentless selling in these stocks. Nothing has changed for the positive. But it's actually some former leaders completely falling apart that now has my attention.
Remember when Industrials broke out to new all-time highs? We said that as long as that was the case, how bad could things be? Well, Industrials are no longer above those former highs and actually just broke down to new 10-year relative lows. This is behavior consistent with an environment where we want to be selling stocks, not buying them: