From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we’re currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

Tactical Levels for the S&P

The S&P 500 is bouncing off the 38.2% retracement of its rally from the October lows. This level also coincides with the AVWAP from 2022 lows, making it a confluence zone of support to halt the recent selling pressure. 

The conditions for the re-birth of a bull market were met earlier this month, but the confirmation of strength has been underwhelming. Of the six indicators on our bull market behavior checklist, only one is currently meeting the bull market criteria.

More Context: Our bull market behavior checklist is a balance of breadth & price indicators, designed to reflect persistent turns toward risk or opportunity. We don’t want to be so focused on what is happening at home that we lose sight of what is happening overseas, so we use both US and global market data. These indicators are not discrete signals that can be overly influenced by day-to-day volatility (of which there has been plenty) in recent months but are ongoing measures that reflect a continuous environment. While our checklist is not indicating a healthy breadth of bull market behavior, it would be premature to suggest that the rally off of the Q4 lows is on its deathbed. But after last week, the rally has gone from feeling tired and rundown to...

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche.

Annual data shows that the Federal government’s cost to service its debt (as a % of GDP) reached its highest level in two decades last year. 

Why It Matters: Debt servicing costs were at a generational low just a few years ago. Now persistent inflation is pushing bond yields higher and the latest CBO projections show federal debt levels continuing to soar (new highs that aren’t cause for celebration). Interest payments on the debt are moving from afterthought to fiscal burden. Without a rediscovery of fiscal discipline getting a handle on inflation is going to be a challenge and that is likely to keep yields higher for longer. A quick return to the market and fiscal conditions of the past decade does not appear to be in the cards.    

This is the video recording of the February 23rd, 2023, Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche.

2/23/23 2:00 PM ET

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche

The NAAIM exposure index surpassed its August high last month and has been on either side of its April high over the past two weeks. With price action cooling, active investment managers may regret their eagerness to increase equity exposure.    

Why It Matters: Active managers led the recent shift from pessimism to optimism. While sentiment overall doesn’t look ready to boil over at this point, there are some hot spots that could benefit from cooling. The NAAIM data, which has outpaced the recovery in price, is in that category. The broader sentiment risk is that a period of sideways price action leads reluctant optimists to turn bearish again. At this stage in the cycle we need bulls to have a bull market and a return to pessimism would likely add to downward pressure on price. This is all the more likely if volatility remains undiminished (only 4 years in the past quarter century began with more 1% swings in the S&P 500 than we have experienced so far this year) and breadth meaningfully...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Dynamic Portfolio Update: Gold miners (GDX) are breaking down on a relative basis so we are selling the exposure we have there in the Tactical Opportunity Portfolio and re-deploying that capital to areas that continue to show leadership.

Coming into this week, we’ve seen more new highs than new lows every day so far this year. Improved breadth helped fuel a higher high for the S&P 500. But with the index dropping back into its December range and new highs struggling to expand, the going, for now, is getting rough.

More Context: If our perspective just goes back to the late-September/early-October lows, the pattern on the S&P 500 is an encouraging higher low followed by a higher high accompanied by improving breadth. If we push back a little further, we still get breadth improvement but the S&P 500 pattern is more ambiguous. This month’s higher high could be an eerie inverse of last fall’s lower low (which quickly reversed), though we haven’t seen enough deterioration to this point to argue for more defensive tactical positioning. So long as the S&P 500 is above the June lows and below the August highs, acknowledging that sideways is a direction would not be inconsistent with the cyclical weight of the evidence that is in...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we’re currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

Bulls Dance with France

Last week, France's CAC 40 Index became one of the first global indices to reach record highs. The fact that more and more countries are trending to the upside speaks to broadening participation overseas.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.

By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.

Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:

* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

Macro Universe:

• This week, our macro universe was negative, with 62% of our list closing lower with a median return of -0.19%.
• Copper $HG was the winner, closing with a 2.29% gain.
• The biggest loser was Lumber $LB, with a weekly loss of -8.94%.
• There was no change in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 13%.
• 9% of our macro list made fresh 4-week highs.
• Meanwhile, 40% of...

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche.

Prior to this week, we had seen just one day in the past three months with less than 70% of world markets above their 50-day averages. We’ve now had two days in a row with this indicator of global market strength in the yellow zone. 

Why It Matters: The strongest markets have the broadest participation and historically the S&P 500 hasn’t run into much trouble as long as at least 70% of world markets are above their 50-day averages. Risks intensify when this drops below 40%. We discussed this (and other indicators of market stress) in our weekly Townhall as well as the Takeaways summary. 

The Bottom Line is this: It’s not a red flag yet, but rally risks increase if fewer world markets are above their 50-day average and the dollar finding a bid after selling off in Q4 could challenge the strength we’ve seen around the world in recent months.       ...

This is the video recording of the February 16th, 2023, Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche.

2/16/23 2:00 PM ET

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche

Last week was the first time in 45 weeks that the weekly AAII survey showed more bulls than bears. The most recent stretch of pessimism did not eclipse the Financial Crisis in terms of intensity (the bull-bear spread bottomed last year at -43%, versus -51% in March 2009).  But it did set the record for persistence.

Why It Matters: This newfound optimism is leading to some concern that the rally off of last year’s lows has run its course. This is based on the idea sentiment is always best used as a contrarian indicator. Leaning against sentiment tends to be most successful after it has reversed at extremes. The path higher for stocks becomes more clear as bulls replace bears. Rallies that are accompanied by rising optimism tend to be more sustainable. Optimism becomes a headwind after it becomes excessive and begins to fade. While on the watch for excesses, mostly we are seeing investors finally beginning to embrace stock market strength. At this point in the cycle, strength fuels optimism and optimism fuels strength. Increasing optimism after persistent pessimism is a welcome sight.

In...