On this episode of Pardon The Price Action, we're talking about the implications of rising interest rates. This is no longer an environment where Growth stocks outperform. It's actually the exact opposite.

We're also seeing these signs from other countries around the world with much more exposure to the Value sectors like Energy, Materials, Industrials and Financials.

US Investors have a lot more exposure to Technology and Growth than almost every other country in the world.

I think Latin America is worth watching, China and many other emerging markets.

We believe this time IS different!

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What if the outperformance we've seen from the United States stock market for so long is behind us?

Is your portfolio prepared for an environment where US stocks underperform the rest of the world?

What about your peers?

Do you think Financial Advisors across the country have positioned their clients to take advantage of outsized returns outside the United States?

I talk to a lot of people.

And my answer is no. A big fat obnoxious NO.

I don't think they're ready at all. And the pain could last a while.

By the time your average financial advisor gets off the golf course and notices how poorly positioned their clients are, it's usually much later in the cycle.

This is our ASC Research Q1 2022 Playbook.

With the current market environment giving us many mixed messages, what better time to dive in and see what's happening underneath the surface?

• Stocks (International & U.S.)
• U.S. Sectors & Industries
• Market Breadth & Sentiment
• Commodities
• Currencies
• Intermarket Analysis
• Crypto Currencies
• New Trade Ideas
• Overall Strategy

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Commodities are making a fresh leg higher, and energy is leading the way.

Crude oil is back above our risk level around 76. And the energy-heavy CRB Index is at its highest level in more than seven years.

But it’s not just energy contracts that are working right now. We’re seeing strength across all areas of the commodity complex.

This broadening participation is evident in our equal-weight commodity index, which just hit new highs after consolidating for the past two quarters.

This chart shows the CRB Index and our equal-weight index side by side:

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Crude oil bulls are back in town!

They kicked the year off by pushing price back above 76 and reclaiming the upper bounds of a multi-year base. Oil is the most important commodity in the world, so it’s hard to overstate just how bullish fresh seven-year highs would be. 

But we’re not quite there yet. We still need to take out the fall highs. 

The 76 level marks the former 2018 highs and the breakout from a massive reversal pattern. Buyers ran into an overwhelming amount of supply here during the back half of 2021. When they did manage to reclaim those former highs, it was short-lived, and the move quickly failed. 

But the move was more of a false start than a failed breakout. We’re back above this level again today.

Now that the bulls are back in the driver’s seat, can we expect to finally see crude oil at 100 in the coming weeks or months?

It’s very possible -- especially given one key development in recent weeks…  

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

In recent weeks, we’ve been diving into individual commodity groups to size up the structural trend and to get a better idea of where we’re likely headed in the new year.

Last week, we highlighted energy contracts and the fact that many are still grappling with overhead supply. And earlier in the month we covered the worst-performing area of the commodity markets - precious metals.

Today, we’re going to turn our attention back to metals and review the base metals group.

Even with the S&P 500 printing record highs, trading ranges and overhead supply stole the show in 2021 and those dominant themes are evident when we look at base metals.

Notice the strong relationship between our equal-weight base metals index and blue-chip international equities in the Global Dow Index $DGT.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley    

As we approach year-end, we're diving into the individual commodity groups to gauge the status of the primary trends and to get a better idea of where we’re likely headed in 2022. 

Last week, we highlighted precious metals -- by far the worst performers of 2021 with a -10.59% return thus far. We think there's a good chance they'll turn things around next year and start participating.

Today, we’re going to review the other end of the spectrum in terms of performance -- energy! 

While base metals and ags have posted strong gains over the trailing 12-months -- 25.96% and 28.22% respectively -- energy has been the real leader, quietly printing a 46.33% gain despite recent selling pressure.

After crude oil collapsed below zero last year, the entire group had its work cut out. But they’ve covered an amazing amount of ground in a short period of time, and we think they have further to go.

It's always fun having Paul Ciana on the podcast. You guys familiar with the show have already heard some our conversations over the years. They're always insightful, and he always gets me thinking.

While here at Allstarcharts.com we approach the world through the lens of an equities investor, and use other asset classes as a supplement, Paul does the exact opposite. His days both begin and end with the study of fixed-income markets, commodities, and currencies. Paul is the Chief Global FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America.

In this episode, we dive right into it starting with the US dollar, gold, crude oil, and the most important currency crosses for stock market investors to focus on.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

We study a wide variety of sentiment data as we incorporate many different indicators into our day-to-day analysis.

In its simplest form, sentiment tells us how certain market participants or investors feel about the market.

Are investors feeling bullish and increasing their exposure to risk?

Or, are investors feeling fearful and positioning defensively?

More often than not, these are contrarian indicators that work best when at extremes.

One of our favorite sets of sentiment data comes from a weekly report published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It is called the Commitment Of Traders, or COT report, and it simply outlines how various participants are positioned in futures markets.

We get lots of questions regarding how we analyze the COT report, so let’s talk about two of the main ways we find value in this information.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Not unlike the major US equity indexes, the commodity space is still range-bound as we head into year-end.

When we compare the trailing 12-month returns of individual groups, we get a sense of how bifurcated the commodity market has been. Another thing that stands out is just how weak precious metals have been relative to their peers.

While the rest of the asset class has posted solid gains on the year, gold and silver continue to trend lower. If this is truly a commodities supercycle, we’d expect to see some participation from this group. And, considering they’ve been in a downtrend for almost 18-months now as the rest of the space has been working, we’d expect it to happen soon. 

Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on with these shiny rocks.

First, here’s a chart with the trailing 12-month returns of our four major commodity indexes - energy, precious metals, base metals, and ags: