The FMCG sector had hit the snooze button and was in a nice slumber until recently. With the index making a new all-time high and stocks moving up above their resistances, this is a good time to take a look at FMCG.
We've been absolutely clear from the beginning that in a messy market environment, one has to be careful with regards to their investments.
What we also know, is that FMCG is a defensive sector and tends to lead the market when the sentiment isn't in the most positive territory.
So let's take a look at the stocks which are making the cut in the current market scenario.
How about being clear about our levels in the sector first?
Here's the sector chart that we're tracking at the moment. On the weekly timeframe, we're observing an overhead target above 39,600. This is the 161.8% Fibonacci extension of the October 2018 highs to December 2020 lows move.
What's left to see is if this trend continues along - above its immediate resistance - with the strong momentum that we're witnessing at present.
From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge
Whether more stocks are going up or down these days simply depends on where you look. Some advance-decline lines are moving higher, but others are moving lower.
Weakness and divergences in these indicators are more often than not resolved over time, but the longer they persist the more concerning they become.
This hasn’t been an issue for most of the major averages, as the S&P 500 and other large-cap indexes keep making new highs with confirmation from their A/D lines.
Yet when we look beneath the surface, and particularly down the cap scale, we're seeing a different story. Ultimately, some stocks are going up, but most are not.
You’ve probably heard already, but the current environment is an absolute mess as the weight of the evidence continues to hang in the balance. In today’s post, we’ll discuss some charts that do a great job illustrating all the mixed signals out there right now.
Seasonality of markets is something I've done a lot of work on throughout my career. As humans who are part of society, we behave differently depending on the seasons. We dress differently, we hang out with different people, we go to different places, all according to a calendar.
If you think those behavior changes don't impact our decision making, then I don't think you understand humans. And if you think those behaviors and decisions don't affect how we participate in markets, then I think you're just being naïve.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of the annual Stock Traders Almanac published by my pal Jeff Hirsch.
Yesterday after the close, I had a great chat with Ed Clissold, the Chief U.S. Strategist at Ned Davis Research. The podcast episode will be up shortly, so keep an eye out for it. You can subscribe to my Technical Analysis Radio Podcast here, if you haven't already.
The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.
The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.
Welcome to our latest RPP Report, where we publish return tables for various asset classes and categories, along with commentary on each.
Looking at the past helps put the future into context. In this post, we review the absolute and relative trends at play and preview some of the things we’re watching to profit in the weeks and months ahead.
We consider this our weekly state of the union address as we break down and reiterate both our tactical and structural outlook on various asset classes and discuss the most important themes and developments currently playing out in markets all around the world.
In our last report, we pounded the table on our position that markets are a total mess these days. Another theme we hit on was how many significant risk assets were trading at or below critical levels of overhead supply.
This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.
We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.
We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.
Welcomeback to our latest "Under The Hood" column, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended August 20, 2021. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated on-and-off with our "Minor Leaguers" column.
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.
This week we’re looking for a long setup in the Consumer Goods Sector. FMCG is a defensive sector and tends to outperform the market in a broadly weak environment.
Stocks in the U.S. and around the world, Interest Rates both domestic and global, Commodities, Currencies and an infinite amount of Intermarket Relationships that help us identify trends across assets.
Price is what pays. Not just around here, but also for you reading this, as well as every other investor on the planet.
Nothing else is going to pay you.
So when it comes to "What is the best Technical Indicator?"
The answer is Price.
Now, in order to supplement our price analysis, we include things like Momentum and Breadth studies, Relative Strength, Sentiment, Seasonality, Volatility and a bunch of new tools and strategies that we continue to develop as markets evolve over time.
Sentiment can be a tricky one.
I think anyone who has been in markets for a while would agree.
The short answer is that there is NO single sentiment indicator that will tell you when to buy or sell stocks, or any other asset class for that matter.
Where Sentiment really stands out to me is when it is at a historic extreme, which by definition, is not very often.
This could have been disaster for the Stock Market, but instead it's just more of the same: A Hot Hot Mess.
I think a great way to explain what happened this week is with the Equally-weighted S&P500. Remember, this version of the index is not heavily weighted towards those monster companies.
This index gives an equal weighting to each of the components:
As many of you know, something we’ve been working on internally is using various bottoms-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!
One way we’re doing this is by identifying 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.
