Yesterday's candle in most of the major indices was a "Bearish Engulfing" candle, which is a short-term reversal signal when it comes in an uptrend.

In today's post, I want to bring that development to your attention and explain what it means within its longer-term context.

You guys know that I just tell it like it is. I don't care what happens. The stock market can double or can get cut in half. Gold can go to zero tomorrow or to 10,000/oz and I won't care. I'm too old to worry about the economic or social implications of market moves. Been there, done that and it doesn't help. We have to look at everything as objectively as possible.

Now, with that said, I have some thoughts that some of you may not appreciate. But I'm not here to tell you what you want to hear. I'm here to tell you what I'm seeing right? So bear with me.

For those of you who have been around here a while, you remember just how bearish I was towards the US Dollar coming into 2019. The Dollar rolling over was a big catalyst for why we were so bullish of precious metals throughout the first 3 quarters of 2019. It wasn't until September last year that we said, ok it's time to get out.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

This week's talk of the town is how Financials, particularly Regional Banks, are rolling over relative to the rest of the market at a faster rate than the Yield Curve is rolling over.

While that's certainly something worth noting, Financials as a group don't really become that interesting until they break out to new all-time highs.

The XLF is close, but not there yet.

Instead, I think the focus should be on the Broker-Dealers & Exchanges ETF (IAI) as it presses up against all-time highs of its own.

Let's take a look at what's happening.

Here's the Broker-Dealers & Exchanges ETF (IAI) holding well above its 2007 highs after a successful breakout retest in January 2019. Today, prices are pushing back up against their 2018 highs as momentum approaches overbought territory on the weekly chart, confirming the strength of buyers. From a structural perspective, there's not a lot to dislike here.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

Sometimes the greatest things in the world are right there in front of you.

Of all the charts I look at and indicators that we include in our process, Consumer Staples relative to the S&P500 has to be one of the most valuable. And for that matter, one of the more simpler tools to use.

Consumer Staples are the things we're theoretically going to buy even if there's a recession or the economy is doing poorly. No matter how bad things get, we're still going to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, brush our teeth, wash our dishes and so forth. Those stocks tend to outperform when the rest of the stock market is falling. Some of the top holdings of the S&P Consumer Staples Index include Colgate-Palmolive, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

These stocks represent consumer staples and tend to pay higher dividends and are less volatile than the overall market. We call that "lower beta", because it makes us sound smarter.

Anyway, you can see in this chart how helpful the relative strength in staples has been in identifying trends and turning points:

There seems to be more data available than ever as we head into the end of this decade. It's up to us to decide how we use it, or ignore it in many cases.

I have my process and everyone else has theirs. But one thing that is a common denominator among all of us is this current period of resetting before we begin a new year.

This week I asked Phil if this calendar thing was something we made up as humans or if this is something real that we should embrace. This was his response:

Rebirth is a universal theme. Dates are milestones adding rhythmic structure. Not "required" but common across cultures and eras."

I'm glad he said that because I enjoy this time of the year. I like thinking about the things we're thinking about.

We'll have a lot more charts and trade ideas this week, of course, as we approach our Monthly Conference Call Thursday (email me if you have not registered).

The BRICKS are breaking out, but India is being left behind due to a lack of breadth. Large-Caps continue to perform, but when they pause there are not enough stocks to pick up the slack...so what we get is a messy, choppy 2-year range in the Nifty 500.

As a result, we've been focusing on the stocks showing relative strength...making money on the long side by sticking with the names that continue to trend, and playing the short side when the reward/risk is ridiculously skewed in our favor.

Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to close out the year/decade with the same gameplan as charts like the one below are a symptom of the weak breadth problem India's had for two years.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

As we head into year end there's a lot going on in markets, particularly on the macro and intermarket front.

With that being said, I gotta give the people what they want so today's Chart of The Week is going to focus on a trade setting up in one of 2019's most controversial stocks...Beyond Meat.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Mobile Payment stocks have been a key part of our focus on the Technology theme taking place across various sectors of the market.

Since the summer the space has cooled off a bit but is back at levels where it would make sense for the trend to reaccelerate to the upside.

Here's the Mobile Payments ETF vs S&P 500 ratio (IPAY/SPY) pulling back to trendline support. This looks like a normal pullback within a long-term uptrend, however, our concern is that momentum got oversold for the first time since mid-2016.

The strongest uptrends do not get oversold, but unfortunately, this one has so we need to watch if prices bounce from this level and resume their uptrend (preferably getting overbought once again) or if they roll over through support and make fresh lows.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

Commodities have been a "hot mess" as a group with the exception of a few trends that we've been taking advantage of.

The last time we talked about Base Metals were in July, when we were looking for a bounce in Zinc.

Today, let's take a look and see if anything in the space has changed.

Did you notice that the U.S. Financials Sector Index is just 3.5% away from its infamous all-time highs in 2007 before the financial crisis?

That's right, $XLF is approaching this level once again, for the 3rd time in almost 13 years. Is this finally going to be it? Are we really going to start a new bull market in Financials?

I think yes and I'm going to tell you why.

First here is the chart I'm referring to and its 3rd attempt to get through this level:

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

If you look at a list of the best-performing stock markets in the world this year and over the last few, you'll see New Zealand towards the top of that list in both local currency and US Dollar terms.

With that said, today's Chart of The Week is focused on another New Zealand chart that's NOT equities.

Don't worry, we'll talk equities too for you non-currency traders.

The Nifty 50 and Nifty 500 are back at the top of their multi-year range right as we're starting to see signs of exhaustion in various global markets.

Failed breakouts and bearish momentum divergences help us to identify potential reversals in the market and we're seeing a few of them occur in India and elsewhere.