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

It’s no secret. 

As investors, we've been rewarded for buying stocks and commodities over bonds for more than a year now. And this will most likely remain the case, as more evidence suggests we’re in an environment that favors risk assets.

The copper/gold ratio hitting new seven-year highs, AUD/JPY testing its year-to-date highs, and cyclical stocks assuming leadership all point to an increasingly risk-on tone.

But for some of us, it’s not as simple as selling bonds and walking away. In some scenarios, we must have exposure to the bond market.

If that’s the case, we want to focus on the riskier areas of the market, just like we’re doing with other asset classes.

Let’s look at a few charts that direct our attention to the strongest areas of the bond market.

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

Interest rates, inflation expectations, and commodities are all on the rise. 

But as these pieces of the intermarket puzzle fall into place, it’s hard to make sense of the strength in the US Dollar Index $DXY. That’s also been on the rise recently.

Even other areas of the currency market don’t quite fit with the action we see in the USD. We pointed out the absence of risk-off behavior in a post last week where we highlighted the broad weakness in the yen as well as AUD/JPY making new multi-month highs.

So what’s going on with the US Dollar Index?

Let’s look under the hood at some individual USD pairs and their trends across multiple timeframes to see what the weight of the evidence is currently suggesting.

First, let’s look at the short-, intermediate-, and long-term trends in some of the main US dollar crosses:

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

Copper was a critical piece missing from the intermarket puzzle heading into the fourth quarter.

Just last week, copper was testing year-to-date lows and looking vulnerable for a downside break. Meanwhile, energy futures and interest rates were rising, and cyclical and value stocks were getting back in gear.

The mixed signals were impossible to ignore. It’s not likely that the recent breakouts in crude oil and the US 10-year yield would hold in an environment where copper is breaking down.

Dr. Copper is a great leading economic indicator and critical to the global growth narrative. Let’s see what it’s saying.

Here are two ways we were looking at the copper chart:

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

We’re beginning to see signs that risk-on behavior is re-entering the market.

Commodities are ripping in the face of a rising dollar.

Cyclical stocks are back in gear as the S&P 500 High Beta ETF $SPHB posts higher highs and higher lows relative to its low-volatility alternative $SPLV.

Meanwhile, classic risk-appetite barometer AUD/JPY sliced through a critical level of former support-turned-resistance earlier this week.

All of these point to an increasing risk-on environment. 

But what does the bond market have to say about investor positioning toward risk?

Let’s look at a couple credit spreads that speak to investors’ willingness to incur risk.

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

All eyes have been on the US dollar as it presses to new 52-week highs.

But its recent rally hasn’t been accompanied by the usual risk-off behavior we’d expect. Actually, it’s been quite the opposite.

Bonds have been rolling over, commodities and cyclical stocks continue to march higher, and the yen can’t catch a bid.

To us, the evidence suggests the USD is momentarily decoupling from its classic intermarket relationships as it grinds higher in the face of all this.

If the US dollar is out of sync with the action in other asset classes, where can we look within the currencies market for a clear perspective of investors’ attitudes toward risk?

That’s right... the yen!

Let’s look at a couple of charts highlighting the Japanese yen’s weakness and discuss what it means for the current market environment.

First up is the classic risk-appetite barometer, the AUD/JPY cross:

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

Commodities have been on an absolute tear, with our Equal-Weight Commodity Index up almost 40% over the trailing year. 

But ever since Q2, the vast majority of the space has been chopping sideways along with most cyclical assets. 

Sounds a lot like stocks, doesn’t it? And while we’re still yet to see any major resolutions from equities, we have seen some bullish developments in the commodities market of late.

Energy asserted itself as the new leadership group with a series of major breakouts. Both crude and heating oil broke to new six-year highs, while gasoline futures completed a seven-year base. 

Then there’s natural gas, which gained more than 25% during the trailing month and tested its 2014 highs just above 6.

The emerging leadership from energy comes as no surprise, as we noticed signs of relative strength last month.  

Now that it’s here, what are the implications for the rest of the commodity space and global risk assets?

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

Back in August, we presented two opposing views of the relationship between stocks and bonds.

The question was, after running into resistance at a key extension level, in which direction would the $SPY/$TLT ratio resolve?

Would stocks break higher relative to bonds, in the direction of the underlying trend?

Or would the ratio roll over in favor of bonds? It would certainly be a logical level for a trend reversal...

Fast forward two months, and we finally have our answer.

Turns out it was the former -- stocks are breaking higher relative to bonds. Here's a look:

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

We held our October Monthly Strategy Session last night. Premium Members can access and rewatch it here.

Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month. 

By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends. This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.

With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.

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

The US dollar marches to the beat of its own drum.

Interest rates are rising across the curve, sparking strength out of economically sensitive areas within stocks and commodities.

Crude oil and the energy-heavy CRB Index are breaking to new six-year highs and the energy sector SPDR is testing a crucial area of former support turned resistance -- all while the US Dollar Index is catching a bid. 

It’s not every day we see the dollar and commodities rally in tandem.

This environment suggests the dollar should be rolling over or chopping sideways at best. Yet it continues to show strength!

When markets don’t do "what they should,” that’s valuable information. And in this case, it raises some important questions.

How often does the historically inverse correlation between the dollar and commodities decouple? 

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

Energy is the clear leader in the commodity markets right now. Our equally-weighted energy index is up 13.76% over the trailing month and 6.58% in the last five days.

The emerging strength from this group is supported by a rising rate environment that could be just getting started.

So, crude oil to 100 dollars and natural gas to 9?

Maybe! But before we get ahead of ourselves, there are still plenty of mixed signals and divergences that need to be resolved.

One that stands out is the lack of confirming price action between economically sensitive commodities. Let’s take a look!

Here’s a chart of Crude Oil futures, Copper futures, and Copper Miners $COPX:

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

We’re finally starting to see resolutions in the bond market.

The 30-year yield is back above 2.00%, the 10-year has reclaimed 1.40%, and the 5-year yield has cleared 1.00% for the first time since February 2020.

Now that it appears rates have picked a direction, what are the implications for the other two major asset classes, stocks and commodities?

As we highlighted last week, we want to look at cyclical and value stocks along with economically sensitive commodities, specifically energy and base metals.

And, in case you haven’t heard, higher yields should also put a bid in financials.

Earlier in the month, we pointed out the relationship between the 10yr-3mo spread and Regional Banks $KRE relative to the S&P 500 $SPY.

Today, we want to follow the same train of thought but apply the analysis to Broker-Dealers $IAI.

Here’s the chart of the 10-year 3-month treasury spread overlaid with the IAI/SPY ratio:

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

The US 10-year yield has made a decisive move back above 1.40% in recent sessions.

We’ve been pounding the table about this critical level for months now--and for a good reason. It’s a vital component of the global growth narrative and rotation into cyclicals.

And most investors probably aren’t prepared for it!

Yesterday, JC and Steve discussed areas that demand attention in a rising rate environment and how we should position ourselves. You can check it out here.

Think cyclical and value stocks. And don’t forget economically sensitive commodities like energy and base metals.

But what about currency markets?

For starters, most currencies versus the US dollar should be beneficiaries of rising rates. This is particularly true for commodity-centric currencies like the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, the Russian ruble, and the South African rand.