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.
In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.
Structural Trends Shift in Favor of Value
We just got fresh monthly candles for August last week. When we look at a monthly line chart of the growth vs value relationship, it’s hard to see anything but a recently completed double top formation and successful retest from below. The fact that this bearish reversal pattern is occurring at a critical level of interest at the dot-com bubble highs makes this price action even more significant. As long as this distribution pattern remains valid, we’re anticipating a structural reversal in this relative trend that favors value. And as shown in the upper pane, as far as the major averages are concerned, this means we want to overweight the value-heavy Dow Industrials and underweight tech-heavy indexes such as the Nasdaq 100.
The most significant insider activity on today's list comes in a Form 4 filing by Juan Delgado-Moreira, vice-chairman of Hamilton Lane Incorporated $HLNE.
Delgado-Moreira reported a purchase worth roughly $1 million.
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.
Bryant R. Riley, chairman and CEO of B. Riley Financial Inc $RILY, and director Randall E. Paulson both filed Form 4s reporting purchases for a combined $3.7 million. Both executives have been frequent buyers all year.
Arthur Laffer, the former Reagan administration economic adviser known for the Laffer Curve, filed a Form 4 revealing a share purchase in NexPoint Residential Trust $NXRT.
Regardless of the time frame, we continue to see leadership and relative strength from energy stocks.
Outside of utilities, it is the only sector flaunting positive returns on a year-to-date basis.
Even over the past several weeks, with the broader market coming under increasing pressure, energy stands out as the most resilient group.
When we look at the structural trend for energy stocks, this makes a lot more sense.
While most sectors and indexes are facing downward sloping or sideways 200-day moving averages, indicating that the path of least resistance is lower, energy stocks remain in a strong primary uptrend.
While the corrective action of the past few days has not left energy unscathed, the Energy Sector SPDR $XLE remains above our risk level of 79.
As long as this is the case, the bias is higher for energy, and we want to be looking for the strongest stocks to buy as a way to express our bullish thesis.
As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-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.
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.
