From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
Commodities are having their best week since 1970. And if you don't know what happened after that, let's just say it was a good decade for them as a group.
The CRB Index is up more than 13%. Crude oil is trading above 100. Wheat futures opened limit up last night, “dotting the chart.” Base metals such as aluminum and tin continue to print all-time highs.
And even precious metals have joined the party!
Could it get any more bullish?
As it turns out, it can…
After almost a year of sideways action, Dr. Copper looks ready for a fresh leg higher, as it just closed the week at new all-time highs!
Here's a close-up look at the continuation pattern copper has been consolidating in since May of last year:
You can either profit and help your family because of higher energy and commodities costs.
Or you can complain about it.
I've been through enough cycles at this point, that there will always be that group who just complains and complains.
But for those of you who are proactive, and took advantage of the trends in place, then there's really nothing to complain about.
To the contrary, these are great days! Some of the best days, in fact.
It's funny, because you have those people who bought into that scam of so called "passive" investing. It's ridiculous that some investors still fall for that old trap.
Just because you buy and hold major indexes doesn't make you a "passive" investor. You have to be really really really bad at math to believe that.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
Gold is the hot topic this week, now that it’s finally showing signs of life.
It’s impossible to deny gold’s near-term strength. But we think the setup probably needs more time to develop and work through all the overhead supply from the past few years.
Long story short, gold is still pretty messy if it's below the 2011 highs.
If and when the shiny metal makes a decisive resolution, there should be plenty of time to join in and ride the trend higher.
As for other areas within commodities, we continue to see a growing list of contracts reclaim key levels and print fresh highs.
Procyclical commodities like crude oil and gasoline might come to mind since they’re constantly in the news cycle.
But other areas, such as grains and even livestock, are also breaking to new multi-year highs.
Today, we’re going to highlight an agricultural commodity that often gets overlooked.
What do we know for sure about new all-time highs?
We know they aren't characteristics of downtrends.
New highs are something we regularly see in uptrends.
And wouldn't you know it, Gold Futures just made new all-time highs, priced in Japanese Yen.
"But I live in America, JC. Why should I care about gold in yen terms?"
Because Gold acts much more like a currency than a commodity. Haven't you noticed how practically every commodity on earth has skyrocketed the past 18 months, except Gold?
Besides, the new all-time highs in Gold priced in Yen also came along with new 52-week highs in Gold priced in both Euro and Australian Dollar.
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge
There’s been very little happening on our risk checklist, as evidence for risk appetite remains split between bulls and bears.
The last time we discussed it was in our Q1 Playbook. While the list hasn’t picked a decisive direction yet, the fact that it's such a mixed bag is information in and of itself.
It's been an excellent roadmap for us in recent months, because just like the market -- our risk checklist has also been a mess.
Let's take a look at where we stand and discuss some of the more recent developments.