Just landed in Miami Beach for the Future Proof Citywide—one of the best finance conferences out there.

This place is buzzing. People like Josh Brown, Michael Batnick, Tom Lee and Dan are all here. 

Even Michael Saylor showed up this morning!

It’s shaping up to be an incredible week.

I rolled in with my friends Steve and Patrick.

These gatherings are always an opportunity to catch up, exchange ideas, and soak in the energy of the industry’s best.

But back to the markets—after two solid days, U.S. equities are in rebound mode.

Now it’s up to the bulls to prove themselves. 

The strength of this bounce will determine...

Silver is squeezing higher to new multi-month highs and looks poised to climb higher to fresh multi-decade highs shortly.

This is happening on the heels of this precious metals bull market recently turning 1 year old.

Gold futures are also trading above 3,000 dollars for the first time ever.

All of this combined has fueled the animal spirits in the mining industry.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended March 14th, 2025. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

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.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual options activity, or simply our proprietary lists of trending tickers, there’...

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolled  XOP position to May options.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

What if there isn't a recession? 

Retail sales came in soft for February, with some strength in staples. Discretionary was so/so which would have seemed bad two months ago but comes as a bit of a relief in light of the bloodletting we've seen in stocks levered to the consumer over the last month.

Shares of Walmart are down 17% in the month since the company took down guidance for the year based on Tariffs and the general ennui of consumers in the face of "economic uncertainty". Walmart wasn't a cheap stock at $105 but at $80 shares are pricing in a weak St Patrick's Day, a soft Easter and about a 70% chance of a lousy Christmas.

Being the low-price provider of discount grocery and household items isn't a bad thing in a weak economy. Walmart is the world's largest employer (except the Chinese Army). COVID and the resulting supply chain disasters made Walmart a much better operator. For Walmart to keep breaking lower from here it's going to take more than flexing and sentiment. It'll certainly take more than a .3% change in retail sales for February and some weak Consumer Sentiment surveys.

What happens if the sky doesn't fall? What if the...

What a year this has been for the stock market.

These are historic returns being put up in 2025, so investors should be very pleased right?

Nope.

We have some of the most historically bearish sentiment on record. And it's mostly because Large-cap U.S. growth has been such a massive underperformer in 2025.

Look at these epic returns across Asia, Europe and Latin America. And compare them to the negative performance in the United States.

Listen, I understand that many Americans have an irresponsible amount of U.S. Large-cap Growth in their portfolio. 

I get that.

And those kinds of people are getting smoked in this environment. 

The U.S. is the last place you want to be invested this year. And the data shows.

What's hilarious is that in Q4 last year, the journalists parading around as economists suggested on the cover of their print magazine that the United States was the envy of the world.

...

Crown Castle $CCI just had its best earnings reaction since Q2 2003. It was epic.

What happened?

The company announced the sale of its fiber optics segment for $8.5B, making Crown Castle the only public pure-play U.S. tower company.

The market loves the simplicity.

This sale will also make the operations more efficient and reduce costs. 

With these extra funds, the company plans to implement a $3B share repurchase program. 

Now, let's talk about what else happened.

*click the image to enlarge it

As you can see, Crown Castle $CCI had the best reaction score, and Ulta Beauty $ULTA was a close 2nd place.

CCI reported $1.65B in revenues versus its $1.64B estimate and a loss of $10.97 per share versus the $0.44 estimate. This massive discrepancy in EPS was caused by the changes taking place at the company and shouldn't happen again.

ULTA reported $3.49B in revenues versus its $3.47B estimate and a gain of $7.13 per share versus the $8.46 estimate.

Now, let's dig into these reports and talk about their technical...

The Hedge Fund King is making moves.

📌The biggest insider transaction today comes from Steve Cohen’s Point72, which filed a 13G for a 5% stake in VNET Group $VNET. 

As one of the most sophisticated hedge funds, known for high-conviction bets, their entry signals strong institutional confidence in the stock.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from March 14, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

📌In another Form 4, Victoria’s Secret $VSCO saw a $2.18 million insider buy from BBRC International PTE LTD, an investment firm with a history of strategic retail plays.

📌Ares Management $ARES Director Bhutani Ashish put down $1.41 million on his company.

📌Last but not least, Southwest Airlines $LUV had multiple directors stepping in for open-market purchases.

Today's number is... 16

The relative ratio of the World Ex-US index versus the S&P 500 is on the verge of breaking out of a 16-year downtrend.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The blue line shows the relative ratio of World Ex-US versus the S&P 500 Index.

The Takeaway: The US has been outperforming the rest of the world for a long time. However, since the beginning of the year, the ratio of the World Ex-US index versus the S&P 500 has been ripping higher and is now on the verge of breaking a 16-year downtrend.

Let me break down the favorable changes I have seen happen to this ratio over the past 3 months: 

• The ratio is now above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• The slope of the 50-day moving average is trending upward.
• The RSI is above 80, the highest RSI reading this ratio has ever reached.

This is not enough evidence to confirm a trend change. So, for me to confirm that the trend has shifted in favor of the World Ex-US, I need to see the following:...

Let me bottom line it for you.

During bull markets you regularly see the laggards catch up to the leaders. That sort of rotation is perfectly consistent with bull markets throughout history.

During bear markets, it's often the remaining leaders that ultimately catch down to the original losers leading the market lower.

And that's the big question right now. Is the fact that the U.S. is lagging lately just the beginning of more selling coming for stocks?

Or does the lagging U.S. catch up to the leaders all over the world.

Look at the expansion in participation across continents:

I think about it like this.

There have been and continue to be opportunities in stocks with exposure to these types of markets.

Remember that they are very different to the mega-cap Tech-heavy U.S. indexes. Foreign markets generally have a lot more exposure to Industrials, Financials and Natural Resources than American indexes.

As you can see, we continue to focus on the things that are working, and rotation is working. It often does during bull markets.

While all this is happening, we've already started to see relative strength from...

I’ve made plenty of mentions to our Bear Market Checklist in recent weeks. 

It’s something we’re always keeping track of, but matters more in some times, and less in others. 

When we’re in rally mode, it barely crosses my mind. But when volatility strikes, and markets are selling off, it’s the most valuable thing I have. 

Let’s break down exactly what it is and how we use it to guide our analysis at All Star Charts. 

As we track the progress of a bull market, we have major indexes and assets that we want to see achieve certain milestones. This is also true for risk appetite ratios, credit spreads, and breadth indicators. 

So, we simply make a list of these charts and key levels along the way. 

When corrective waves occur, we look for these levels - which in many cases, represent a big line in the sand for these trends, to remain intact.  

We keep tabs of what holds and what doesn’t, and we weigh the evidence accordingly. 

When too many of these zones are violated, it can spell the end of the bull...

I'm constantly on the lookout for opportunities where market participants are most vulnerable.

If our data suggests that a market is too extended in one direction, I want to find ways to profit from an unwind in that positioning.

You saw it recently with how well we've done in our China trades, where 8 out of 8 trades since the election have all at least doubled in value. Think about how much money we've made in these stocks, despite any selling pressure you've seen in the United States recently.

It's not about the fundamentals. It's the positioning. No one owned Chinese stocks, and so the squeeze was on!

Last summer when all the libs were upset with Elon becoming besties with President Trump, we saw a tremendous opportunity to fade their negativity.

See: ...

Semiconductors rallied this week with Nvidia ripping almost 8%.

This all comes as journalists on basic cable tell your parents that the Nasdaq is in a correction.

You see how this works?

Here's Nvidia finding support at the same key extension levels where the buyers stepped up in the Fall:

As I've said a whole bunch of times, if the Semiconductor Index completes this massive top relative to the S&P500, then chances are that the bull market is cancelled.

With Semi's rallying this week, despite the selling pressure in other areas of the market, that alpha put the Semiconductor Index back above all that support, invalidating any bearish implications that may have occurred earlier in March:

If Semi's do actually break, then I believe there is a bigger structural problem in the market, particularly in U.S. equities.

Global equities continue to act well, pointing more towards a rotation, rather than a full blown credit event....

Don't miss the ASC Premium Mid-Month Strategy Session on Monday, March 17th, at 8 pm ET! 🚨

👉 Click here to register for the LIVE event.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

Whether you look at Europe breaking out, Gold pushing toward $3,000, or China ripping higher, some of the best opportunities are now found outside the U.S.

This has been the case so far this year.

The Large-Cap China ETF $FXI just hit 18-month highs relative to the S&P 500 $SPY, signaling a potential shift in market leadership.  

A trend reversal seems to be in play in favor of Chinese equities.

No one’s talking about it. Everyone’s ignoring these stocks.

The rules have changed. 

What worked in previous years isn’t necessarily going to cut it today.

In a market like this, uncorrelated trades aren’t just a hedge—they’re a must for diversification and risk management as leadership shifts across regions and sectors.

Steve and Jason went live yesterday, breaking down their strategies and how to navigate environments like this....

Copper futures have so many tailwinds working for it right now. We think it's ready to breakout to new all-time highs.

We've talked about the strong positive correlation it has with Chinese stocks. This remains the case. 

In addition, base and industrial metals have been ripping. Just look at the setup in Aluminum futures. 

We think it would make sense for Dr. Copper to lead its peers higher. This has already been playing out in precious metals.

The shiny yellow rock has been leading its peers higher, and now Silver futures are a stone's throw away from multi-decade highs. 

Gold futures hit 3,000 for the first time to make things even sweeter. Surpassing...

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.

Here's this week's list:

The math here is simple: volatility = trading volume = profits.

Nobody is better positioned to profit like this than the CME Group, owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

So I'm get involved.