We’re halfway through Q1, and February is historically a weak month for stocks.

But here’s the key—seasonal weakness doesn’t usually kick in until the second half of the month. And that’s exactly where we are now.

In other words, if stocks struggle these next few weeks, it wouldn’t be a surprise based on historical standards. 

Maybe the market hit a rough patch, or maybe it shrugs off this seasonal trend altogether.

Either way, here’s my focus.

I’ll be watching for the groups that hold up best—the ones that stay strong even as the market chops around.

Because when the broader market wobbles, but certain areas show resilience, that’s the real relative strength signal. And that is where some of the best trading opportunities arise.

I’m ready for it.

Alfonso

Stocks are under pressure in the US. Today marks the worst performance of the year for the S&P 500.

But, here’s the thing. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. US stocks haven’t been the leaders for a while.

The US major averages have been stuck sideways for about three months while equities around the world have been moving higher.

Outside of India and Taiwan, you won’t find a worse-performing country than America this year. We’re literally at the bottom of the leaderboard.

It’s almost crazy to think at this point… but after 15 years of US outperformance, could the rest of the world be taking the driver's seat?

First, let’s talk about the technical outlook. There is a growing list of individual countries that have already been outperforming the US. But, that’s not what we’re looking to find out. We want to know if it is finally time for ex-US equities, broadly speaking, to assume a leadership role.

We've been obnoxiously bullish on soft commodities recently. 

And it's for a good reason. 

Coffee just broke out of a nearly 50-year basing pattern. It's hard to bearish when the price is making new all-time highs.

But the group is becoming bifurcated.

Orange juice futures were the early leader in the soft space. The price made a new all-time high in 2022.

Unfortunately (for the bulls), the uptrend in OJ seems to be over, at least for now.

As you can see, orange juice futures resolved a nearly 50-year basing pattern in 2022. This pattern is almost identical to coffee futures. ...

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

1. New position in ARKK.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

*Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month.

Then, we...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street. These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats. In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money." Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

By...

Even though this stock blasted off following earnings last week, it might just be getting started. The second "take" is what I'm here for.

However, with the immediate catalyst in the rear-view mirror, I will proceed going forward under the assumption that there may be some well-deserved consolidation in store while the stock works its way higher over the next 6 months.

So I'm going to attempt to get paid to ride out any potential wait.

Walmart $WMT reported a double beat but got beaten down as a result.

It was a bad day to own the stock. 

Our retail analyst, Jeff Macke, wrote a fantastic deep dive about the report. If you haven't seen it already, you can check it out here. 

The bottom line? Jeff found the quarter worse for Walmart's peers as they continue to invest heavily in the business. They are crushing competitors like Target.

In addition, the company is the largest private employer in the United States. This adds up to be a massive overhead expense.

With the AI revolution accelerating, they are a huge beneficiary. They're automating all kinds of labor, which is expected to expand margins.

Let's talk about what else happened 👇

*click the image to enlarge it

As you can see, Hasbro had the best reaction score on Thursday, and Walmart had the worst. 

Walmart was also the largest company to report. It reported a double beat but fell 6.5% with a...

Arcus Biosciences $RCUS is ripping higher this morning, up around 8%, after Gilead Sciences just dropped nearly $15 million on the stock.

With today’s buy, Gilead seems to be doubling down on its bet on RCUS. Whether it’s a vote of confidence in Arcus or a sign of something bigger brewing, we’re paying attention to.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from February 20, 2025:

GAMCO Investors increased its stake in SuRo Capital Corp $SSSS from 0.90% to 5.30%, signaling growing confidence in the small-cap asset management firm.

Over in regional banks, Bank Leumi Le Israel picked up $9.35 million worth of Valley National Bancorp $VLY.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Ltd boosted its position in BBB Foods $TBBB, taking its stake from 1.10% to 5.14%.

Honestly, not much to note here so this will be brief.

The same industry groups continue to lead higher, like Internet $FDN, Cloud $SKYY, Broker Dealers $IAI, and Cyber Security $HACK. Further, the precious metal miners have also transitioned back into leaders.

The same groups are winning. Nothing's changed.

Have a good weekend, folks!

Something that stands out week to week is how persistently green the Ark funds have been in their leadership.

This is a market environment that is rewarding speculative growth companies, and as shown below they are outperforming their alternatives in the same theme/industry. In other words, we're at a point in the cycle where traders are being rewarded for adopting higher risk through less established stocks.

And it's this market environment that is greatly rewarding our Breakout Multiplier trades.

Our three most hottest trades in recent weeks have been an 18x in $HIMS, an 11x in $EH, and an 8x in $PDD.

These are monster gains.

If you want the next alert, we have a 40% expiring today.

Both the cap and equal weight communication ETFs top the ranking across the sectors.

Communications has been tremendously strong and has just broken to new all time highs.

Financials $XLF and Technology $XLK also just hit all time highs.

The environment is rewarding owners of stocks. And another strategy that's being rewarded is our Breakout Multiplier. We just hit a 14x trade in four weeks in this market environment.

Want access to the next trade? You can do so by clicking here.

Large Cap Growth $IWF remains a dominant factor here as stocks close in on all time highs.

But it's not just a large cap story; indeed Small Cap Growth $IWO remains at new highs relative to Small Cap Value $IWN.

So long as this breakout holds, then the bias leans toward growth continuing to outperform value.

If growth keeps outperforming, the biggest winner could be crypto. While the asset class just sold off hard, there is a significant catch up trade forming right now.

To see which tokens our Senior Crypto Analyst, Louis Sykes, is loading up on, you can watch the replay of when he went live here.

Today's number is... 496

The S&P 500 Technology Sector has been in an uptrend for the past 496 trading days.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The dark blue line in the top panel represents the S&P 500 Technology Sector price. The light blue line represents the 50-day moving average, while the red line shows the 200-day moving average of the S&P 500 Technology Sector.
• The black bars in the bottom panel indicate days when the 50-day average is greater than the 200-day average.

The Takeaway: There are many ways to define an uptrend. One very simple yet effective method is to check whether its 50-day moving average is above its 200-day moving average.

The S&P 500 Technology Sector's trend has been higher for the past 496 trading days. This current uptrend is actually the fourth longest we have seen in the Sector over the past three decades. 

Despite some underperformance from the sector more recently, the S&P 500 Technology Sector...

As market participants, objectivity is everything as it allows us to flip the script when necessary.

That’s why I’m always on the lookout for cracks in my thesis.

One way to do that is by playing devil’s advocate, which is identifying data points that challenge our view and force us to rethink our perspective.

Adapting to new evidence isn’t just an edge; it’s a necessity to be successful in this business.

Right now, when it comes to data points that challenge a bullish case for equities, the weakness in home construction stocks stands out. 

The Home Construction ETF $ITB is breaking to new lows relative to its defensive peer group, the Real Estate ETF $IYR.

This ratio has historically acted as a leading indicator for the broader market.

You can see clear divergences where ITB/IYR tops or bottoms ahead of major turns in the S&P 500...

Here's the replay and chartbook from the February 20 Weekly Strategy Session.

Be sure to join us on Thursdays at 11 am ET and maximize your return potential.

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

1. New position in XLE.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. Closed XLY and XLC at Profit Targets
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.

However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.

Welcome to The Junior Hall of Famers.

This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.

The bottom line is it is a bull market. We...

First up, Apeiron Investment Group just made a massive bet on ATAI Life Sciences $ATAI, picking up more than $22 million in stock.

The stock is up roughly 5% this morning.

Next, Carl Icahn has disclosed a 9.52% stake in JetBlue Airways $JBLU through a 13D filing.

Icahn isn’t just any investor. He’s one of the most legendary activist investors of all time.

Carl Icahn's track record speaks for itself, with high rewards from investments in companies like Apple $AAPL, Netflix $NFLX, and CVR Energy $CVI in the past.

So if history repeats itself, this 13D filing could mark the start of a major turnaround story for JBLU.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from February 19, 2025:

Adage Capital just bought nearly $2 million in Solid Biosciences Inc $SLDB.

And, finally, Bruker Corp’s $BRKR president and CEO...

We love to golf around here, even though we lose a lot of golf balls. But we're not the only ones.

Garmin $GRMN designs and manufactures a variety of fitness smartwatches. This includes a watch for golfers.

The technology is super cool. It's like having a caddie on your wrist.

They've programmed damn near every golf course in the world into this device. This shows golfers various things like distances to greens, hazards, and doglegs.

In addition, they embedded swing-tracking technology into the watch. This analyzes swing speed, tempo, club path, and more.

The bottom line is that this company is doing something right, and the market is noticing.

On Wednesday, they reported a double beat, and the reaction was super positive. The stock rallied over 12% and had a reaction score of 5.3.

The fitness segment (which includes the watches) is growing revenues by 32% Y/Y. This is extraordinary growth.

It wasn't just about the last quarter's results. The management team raised its forward guidance and increased the dividend by 20%.

The market loved everything about this report, and the reaction reflects that.

Let's talk about what...