The market rallied almost 20% in just three days after making new lows last Monday. Stocks recently sold off in record fashion so it's no surprise to see them bounce with the same ferocity. But with the VIX still elevated above 50, we're not out of the woods yet and should expect the swift moves in each direction to continue for now.
Some say we're in a new bull market, but the charts tell us we're actually at a logical level for what appears to be no more than a bear market rally to stop and reverse.
We are constantly analyzing market breadth. We do this not just for insight into the strength of the current trend but also because it helps us identify key turning points. We outlined a variety of deteriorating breadth measures in a post last month to support our bearish outlook on stocks, and the signal turned out to be quite timely as the market collapsed soon after.
With the market now severely oversold amid one of the swiftest bear markets in history, we're looking to breadth measures once again for signs of a tradeable low.
Just as we focus on the strongest markets and stocks to find opportunities during equity bull markets, we look to identify the weakest areas during bear markets. We just want to be in the strongest trends, regardless of their direction.
A few weeks ago we ran some statistics to highlight US stocks that were bucking the trend during the selloff, as those would be the areas to focus on if/when equities eventually regained their footing. While many names have fared well, we were a bit early as the market soon broke below our risk management levels, putting us in a position where we no longer want to be long stocks.
We look at a variety of intermarket ratios that span just about every asset class in order to get a read on interest rates. Here is one that we don't discuss too often, but its relationship with the 10-Year Yield is obvious from looking at the chart below.
The S&P High Beta/S&P Low Volatility (SPHB/SPLV) ratio made significant lows around the same time and place as the 10-Year has several times over the past decade.
After another sharp move lower with dramatic blowups in Yes Bank and Crude Oil, let's revisit that thesis and discuss why patience remains the best course of action given current conditions.
We want to be buying stocks that are in the strongest uptrends. One way we identify them is by looking at momentum which we use the 14-day RSI for. The strongest uptrends do not get oversold, or fall to RSI levels below 30. In fact, the strongest uptrends often stay above the 40-50 level and constantly print overbought readings above 70.
The S&P 500 registered an extreme oversold reading below 20 during the violent correction that began in late February. Here's a look.
In last week's Chart of the Week, we wrote about our bullish outlook on Gold and followed it up with a deep dive on the entire Precious Metals space, which included a number of trade ideas to express our thesis. This week, we have a table that helps provide a different perspective on its recent price action but arrives at the same bullish conclusion.
The shiny metal has gotten a lot of attention lately as it currently sits around its highest level in seven years.
After about a 9% surge off of this month's lows, we'd expect prices to consolidate in the near-term. But after that, we're betting on new all-time highs for Gold in the coming quarters as long as prices are above last year's highs near 1,560. Here's how we see it.
We've been fading gold since September for a variety of reasons, but primarily due to the overwhelming amount of selling being done by Commercial Hedgers.
While many of those conditions still exist our risk management for this thesis has always been Gold closing above 1,600.
This week we're getting that, so let's take a look at what's next and how we're taking advantage of it.
With Crude Oil down 25% over the last month and the rest of the Energy complex struggling in tandem, let's take a look at where it stands and where it could potentially head.
I tried to outline the levels as best as I could. Let me know if you have any questions!
Quickly today, I just wanted to point out one chart of Emerging Markets that really stands out. Remember this Index is broken down as follows: China 32.40%, South Korea 11.84%, Taiwan 11.71%, India 8.13%, Brazil 6.78%, South Africa 4.25% & Russia 3.84%.