This All Star Charts PLUS Monthly Playbook breaks down the investment universe into a series of largely binary decisions and tactical calls. Paired with our Weight of the Evidence Dashboard, this piece is designed to help active asset allocators follow trends, pursue opportunities, and manage risk.
Key Takeaway: Market volatility has not interrupted rotation to new leadership. Long-term breadth remains robust, but shorter-term trends are in need of repair. Earnings and economic data continue to supply the market with positive surprises.
Don't miss this weeks Momentum Report; our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector and Industry Group level. As a reminder, we analyze this shorter-term data within the context of the structural trends at play.
There are plenty of ways to take apart and dissect the move in the bond market that accelerated over the past week. From an investment perspective, if the 11% YTD decline in TLT holds, Q1 statements are going to be a jolt for investors who were led to believe that bonds are a portfolio stabilizer and that you can't lose money in Treasuries. From a market perspective, bonds are putting pressure on the Fed. It’s not yet showing up in the CPI, but Fed officials claiming not to see any inflation pressure strain credibility. It's not the rise in yields at the long-end of the curve that will catch the Fed’s eye, but the move higher in the belly of the curve. The short-end remains anchored by Fed actions, but this week saw 3-year, 5-year, and 7-year yields spike. The 5-year yield is approaching resistance at early 2020 levels, while relative to the 2-year yield (which is responsive to Fed policy) the 5-year yield is at its highest level since 2017. For all the talk of central bank omnipotence and bazookas, the bond market > Fed balance sheet. The Fed may need to adjust its approach.
Our Top 10 report was just published; our weekly report highlighting the best 10 ideas and respective charts we are seeing across the markets this week.
Previous leaders have been overwhelmed by strength elsewhere
Market following those who are stepping into the fray
Market dynamics working against passive investors
Have the generals lost their way? Maybe not in an absolute sense, but definitely relative to where the action on the battlefield is taking place. More importantly, does this doom the army to defeat?
Market discussions of generals and their armies usually focus on whether the army is retreating as the generals advance. A very different situation is playing out currently. The mega-cap leaders that have been pacing the market for years (a trend that intensified this time last year as the shock of COVID overwhelmed the world) have been bogged down even as other areas of the market have heated up. So far, at least, it has been a case of marching in place more than actually sustaining losses. Upward pressure on bond yields and the emergence of better opportunities elsewhere could soon turn a relative weakness into absolute weakness.
Key Takeaway: After record strength, breadth is taking a well-deserved breather.
This has the hallmarks of digestion more than divergence, especially after recording yet another breadth thrust. Re-opening optimism is running high and bond yields around the world are climbing.
With earnings and economic expectations still being revised higher, the path of least resistance for stocks remains higher even if we are starting to see a few more tripping hazards.
Don't miss this weeks Momentum Report; our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector and Industry Group level. As a reminder, we analyze this shorter-term data within the context of the structural trends at play.
Constructing a narrative can be risky behavior if you end up trusting the story more than the incoming evidence. When you can remain objective, however, it allows you to position for an expected outcome and then test whether that outcome is being realized. Form a hypothesis and test it. Know your parameters beforehand, don’t seek to justify the action after the fact. If the facts change, change your mind. We’ve been discussing the prospects of a global coordinated rebound in growth. The evidence at hand suggests we are indeed seeing that. I see the chart below as the who, what, where, and how of this story. FCX is mining for Copper in EEM using CAT. If any of these start to falter, it will suggest the story is changing. Currently, that is not the case.