Mike Hurley has been an inspiration to me for many years. When it comes to market breadth, this is the guy. He'll tell you he learned it from his predecessors and how he's standing on the shoulders of giants and all those things he discusses in this episode, but for me personally, he's been a great influence for sure. Many of you know how seriously I take my breadth work and how valuable it has been to so many of us for many years. It's people like Mike and others who have helped my process evolve to where it is today.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Today JC discussed our March playbook for Members and outlined some areas we'd be looking for a bounce with well-defined risk and others that we want to be completely avoiding.

I wanted to share a few breadth measures to provide context around the recent decline and see if they offer any clues around what's next.

We've been advocating for a more defensive approach towards Equities for most of the last month as the Large-Cap Indices failed to hold onto their new highs and have since reiterated that sentiment throughout February. (Feb. 3rd and Feb 18th)

The strongest Equity market in the world has been the US, however, last week prices started to confirm the weakness we were seeing under the surface since January. Today we wrote a brief piece on US market breadth which reinforces our view that defense remains the name of the game.

This follow-up is to make the point that if the strongest market in the world is catching down to weakness in the rest of the world, then India and other countries that have underperformed are likely to continue struggling in the near-term.

In fact, the breadth divergences we highlighted in the US are also playing out in India.

Let's take a look.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Bonds, Gold, and Defensive Stocks like Utilities, and Cash have been our defensive playbook for the last month.

We've made it clear over the last few weeks that we don't want to be long stocks given current conditions and think there's downside risk from a short-term perspective, despite the structural picture remaining largely unscathed.

Given last week's slight downside follow-through in US Stocks, I wanted to share two breadth charts from our Market Internals Chartbook that summarizes current conditions well.

We've been outlining our thesis for weakness in Indian Equities for over a month now, but that was a tactical call within the context of bullish longer-term picture.

Unfortunately, with the last week or two of action, we've seen an expansion of stocks participating to the downside which suggests this near-term weakness could continue for the rest of the fourth quarter. Rather than the weakest stocks catching up to the leaders, the leaders are now catching down to the weakest names.

Let's take a look.

I can't believe I'm publishing the 100th Episode of this podcast that I started in the summer of 2017. My first guest ever was Ralph Acampora! I mean, how could it not be right? Since then I've had the privilege of interviewing Portfolio Managers, Traders, Analysts, Best Selling Authors and even a World Series of Poker Champion! People all over the world have approached me how much they've learned from listening to the podcasts. It's been an amazing experience for me all around.

As we head into 2020, we start from scratch with our Q4 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter (and year) ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying and selling within the context of today's environment.

As we head into 2020, we start from scratch with our Q4 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter (and year) ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying and selling within the context of today's environment.

As we head into 2020, we start from scratch with our Q4 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter (and year) ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying and selling within the context of today's environment.

How quickly people forget what a beast Amazon has been for years. All it took was an 18-month consolidation for investors to fall out of love with one of the greatest stocks in American history.

The bet the bears are making is that Amazon has been lagging and dragging down the Consumer Discretionary sector, considering it's 22% weighting in the index $XLY. So if you believe this is a big market top, I understand why you would think Discretionaries are setting up for a big fall. I totally get that.

Here's the chart: