As we all know, the S&P500 is a cap-weighted index. In other words, the largest companies by market capitalization (AAPL, XOM ,MSFT, FB etc) represent the largest percentage weighting in the index. The bigger the company, the more important it is to the index. There are 10 (9?) sectors in the S&P500, and Technology is by far the largest one. Therefore one can argue it is the most important one. We can make an argument that Financials are America’s most important sector, but for the purposes of this conversation, let’s agree on the fact that Tech is the largest and therefore the most important of the bunch, representing around 20% of the entire index. [Read more…]
[Premium] A Fresh Look At U.S. Stock Market Breadth
From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting
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There has been a lot of talk about how the recent rally has been accompanied by a dramatic improvement in market breadth, so I took the time to see if the data I track supported that conclusion.
The first study on the major S&P 500 sectors and US Indices was completed by calculating how far the indexes were from their 52-week high compared to the average component in the index. [Read more…]
Audio: Benzinga Morning Radio Show 4-28-16
Every 2 weeks I sit down with the good folks at Benzinga to chat about the markets on their morning radio show. Today we went over why I still think a more neutral to bearish stance is best tactically in U.S. Stocks. We also talk about this rally in Japanese Yen means to the Stock Market. This Yen strength combined with the deterioration in market breadth over the past month, there is a lot more to be negative about than positive. Stocks are not where we’ve wanted to be in April, and staying away has worked out well. The place to have been is in Commodities. I think this theme is here to stay.
Here is the entire interview in full: [Read more…]
There Are Bearish Momentum Divergences Everywhere
The only thing that pays us in this market is price. That’s it. So what we try and do is use a handful of supplemental indicators to help us identify when a change in trend is about to occur. One of the more helpful tools we have to achieve this is momentum. We start to see momentum readings diverge from price, before price ultimately peaks in the coming days, weeks, or months; depending on the timeframe in question.
I personally choose a 14-period relative strength index (RSI) to gauge momentum across asset classes. You can read more about how I use RSI here. In this particular case, I want to focus on the obnoxious amount of bearish momentum divergences that we’re seeing in many of the most important indexes, sectors and stocks around the world. These “divergences” occur when prices make new highs, but momentum simultaneously makes a lower high. It’s a sign that a change in trend is approaching. Since we take a weight-of-the-evidence approach to markets, it’s not just that we’re seeing one or two of these sprinkled around. They’re showing up all over the place.
Here are just a few examples worth noting: [Read more…]
[Premium] Weekly Open Letter About The Current Market Environment
In this week’s members-only letter we discuss the following topics:
- What Is The Bullish Case For U.S. Stocks
- Why I Am Still Leaning Towards The Bearish Side For Stocks
- My Favorite Short In U.S. Stocks
- Why We Want To Be Long Volatility
- What The Relative Strength In U.S. Banks Means To Me?
- Why Commodities Have Been The Best Place In The World
- What If The U.S. Dollar Rallies?
- What Do We Make Of The Historic Extreme Bullish Sentiment In Bonds?
[Chart Of The Week] U.S. Stock Market Breadth Has Weakened in April
When the major U.S. Stock market indexes are making new highs, you want to see the list of stocks making new highs increasing along the way as well. This had certainly been the case throughout February and March, but has come to a complete halt this month. Looking across the board, the S&P500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq 100, Russell 2000, Mid-cap 400, etc have all made new recovery highs over the past couple of weeks, since our epic bottom in late January/early February. The problem is that 1) all of our upside targets have now been achieved where we wanted to take profits and 2) breadth in the market now stinks. [Read more…]
BNN Appearance: It’s Not About Being Right, It’s About Making Money
This week I was over at the Nasdaq in Times Square discussing the current market environment with Frances Horodelski on Canada’s Business News Network. The weight of the evidence is suggesting a cautious stance up here after all of our upside targets have been hit in recent weeks. Remember, we’ve been bullish stocks, globally since late January, and in the U.S. since early February. When our upside objectives are hit, it’s time to reevaluate. That’s what we’re doing now. [Read more…]
The Trade: Buy Twitter and Short Facebook
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to put all social media stocks into one category. We do our best with ETFs like $SOCL, but they can be heavily skewed by certain stocks and it ignores others with smaller market caps. Also, what does a company LinkedIn have to do with Yelp or Yahoo? I think we need to be careful grouping them into just one category, and keep in mind that they are all individuals with their own problems as well as their own unique positive qualities.
The reason I bring this up is because yesterday afternoon, Michael Santoli tweeted out a mystery chart asking followers whether it was a buy or sell: [Read more…]
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