From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

The best short squeezes always start with a burst of momentum.

These moves are often sparked by a headline or news-related catalyst.

The price action in Peloton $PTON yesterday was an excellent example of this dynamic.

After reporting earnings Thursday, Peloton screamed higher and registered its best single-day performance in history.

While the report was nothing extra special, it was the first time the exercise bike maker beat on both the top and bottom line since May 2021.

When sentiment is this sour, sometimes "less bad" is all it takes.

PTON rallied 35% on the heels of the report, and with such a massive short interest, we think it's just getting started.

Here's the chart with the 1-day rate of change in the lower pane:

With extreme short-term momentum behind this stock, we think the squeeze is on.

Let's talk about how we're playing it.

Here's another look at the $1.7B fitness technology company:

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From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

For the first time in my career, I'm buying bonds.

It has less to do with positioning defensively and more to do with making a call on lower interest rates.

But what it really comes down to, more than anything, is the chart pattern.

Bond funds are completing bearish-to-bullish reversals for the first time in years. 

This is the same exact pattern we've gone back to time and again this cycle... and every cycle, really.

Rounding bottoms are some of the most reliable patterns we have as technicians.

And we're seeing them across the board in bond funds right now.

Let's dive in and talk about some of them.

Here's the US Aggregate Bond ETF $AGG: 

This fund holds treasury securities, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and municipal bonds. It is exactly what it sounds like. A diversified bond fund. It also offers investors a 3.4% yield.

The US Aggregate Bond ETF is pressing against the upper bounds of a multi-year accumulation pattern. With...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We...

The question we're asking ourselves today is a big one.

Is the US Dollar breaking down from a multi-year consolidation?

With the dollar rangebound all year, we haven’t experienced a trending currency market. 

When the dollar is trending higher or lower, we have a good idea of the impact it is likely to have on other markets.

However, when it is trendless, the dollar is neither a headwind nor a tailwind for risk assets.

We think that could be changing.

Here's a weekly line chart showing the U.S. Dollar Index making new year-to-date lows:

As you can see, the US dollar bears have taken control and resolved this multi-year consolidation to the downside.

Here's another way to look at it.

The index is trading at the lower bounds of a well-tested range. Notice the flat 200-day moving average, illustrating the sideways nature of the primary trend.

And notice momentum, hitting its lowest level...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended August 16, 2024. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

It’s good to be a gold bug.

New all-time highs and fresh breakouts are dotting the charts. Buy signals are flashing left and right. And even the laggards – Palladium and Platinum – are refusing to break down. 

Best of all, Gold has a one-track mind: up and to the right!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

The price action from commodities has been lackluster, at best, this year. Our equal-weight commodity index is at its lowest level since early 2021.

Despite the broad weakness, gold continues to shine. The 79th element closed this week at its highest price in history.

Here’s a look at gold futures, trading at our first objective measured from the multi-decade base that resolved higher back in Q1:

As long as this breakout sticks, the bias remains higher for the yellow metal. 

On a more tactical note, gold has just completed a multi-month continuation pattern and is in the early stages of a fresh leg up:

We want to use our initial objective of 2,500 as our new floor. With a logical potential...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

The US Dollar Index $DXY is finishing the day relatively unchanged.

Today’s much anticipated CPI print failed to move the needle for the greenback.

On the flip side, $DXY’s most significant component – the euro – is ripping toward a new year-to-date high.

Check out the EUR/USD pair completing a seven-month bullish reversal pattern, retesting its January high:

The path of least resistance now leads higher.

I like buying the euro against the 1.0958 breakout level, targeting 1.1250. But I'm out if the EUR/USD slips into its prior range.

A pop in the euro tends to weaken DXY since it makes up 56.7% of the index, acting as a bullish catalyst for stocks. 

Yet the dollar continues to hold above last Monday’s low.

Plus, the buck moved in tandem with today's stock market averages – a throwback to early last week when everything plunged hand in hand except the yen and US Treasuries.

Markets continue to digest the recent spike in volatility. I expect a good...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Stocks with high short interest are proving resilient, even in challenging market conditions, as the bears struggle to drive down even the most hated names.

With this in mind, it's time for another Freshly Squeezed report.

Here's our approach:

We find the most heavily shorted stocks in the market. Then, we monitor these names for signs of upward momentum. Once that momentum kicks in, we ride them higher as the bears get squeezed.

We got fresh short data on Friday, so let's dive in and talk about it.

Our scan is quite simple. It is designed to identify stocks with the most aggressive short positions.

When a stock is shorted, it means incremental buyers are waiting in the wings to close out their bearish bets.

We love this, as new buyers are the one true catalyst for higher prices.

When shorts are proven wrong, they become buyers of the stock. In many cases, this happens as momentum flows into these names and fuels massive short-covering rallies.

For this reason, we pair short-interest data with short-term momentum overlays, as this...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Don’t believe the headlines.

It’s not all doom and gloom for the market.

Plenty of assets are trending higher, mainly those related to precious metals.

Gold is challenging all-time highs. Silver is catching a bid. Palladium is digging in at former support. (So much for those seven-year lows.)

And gold and silver mining stocks are ripping…