Energy futures are beginning to crack under pressure.
Crude oil and gasoline are breaking down to their lowest levels since February. And heating oil isn’t far behind, as it’s challenging the lower bounds of a similar distribution pattern.
It appears that the bears have finally come for energy.
Since we already laid out our short idea for crude oil futures in a recent post, today, our focus is on the energy sector and the implications these breakdowns carry for energy-related stocks.
Here’s a chart of the Energy Sector ETF $XLE:
When it comes to XLE, 80 is our level. It coincides with a shelf of former highs and an area of overwhelming supply. If it’s below those former highs, the energy sector represents downside risk and opportunity cost.
These are two things we do our best to avoid.
Remember, when we buy stocks, ETFs, or commodities, we prefer to buy high and sell higher. The idea is to buy...
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.
If there is one intermarket relationship that every stock market investor should be following, it's got to be the Discretionary vs Staples ratio.
Consumer Discretionary stocks represent those areas where "Consumers" spend their "Discretionary" income. These include Autos, Retailers and Homebuilders, among other things.
Consumer Staples are the stuff consumers are going to buy and use regardless of how bad the economy might get. These are things like Laundry Detergent, Toothpaste, Beer, Chips and Soda.
When Discretionary stocks are outperforming Staples, that historically happens when stocks in general are doing well and the S&P500 is moving towards the upper right of the chart.
When stocks in general are under pressure, Staples tend to outperform, holding up better than most other stocks, especially Consumer Discretionaries.
It's probably the most important correlation for US Stock Market investors to be aware of.
From the Desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
It’s been an action-packed year for the bond market. Rates have ripped, and bonds have been in free fall worldwide. But US yields stopped going up in June.
More recently, many European benchmark rates have turned lower in dramatic fashion.
Now the question is whether US yields will roll over and follow to the downside.
Instead of getting caught up in the Fed chatter and all its implications, let’s focus on the key levels we’re using as a roadmap for treasury markets in the coming weeks and months.
Here’s a triple-pane chart of the US 30-, 10-, and five-year yields:
All three are carving out potential tops just beneath their respective 2018 highs. You can see the tops in the chart above.
And those critical 2018 highs are highlighted below:
These prior-cycle highs are perfectly logical levels for the current uptrend...
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.
Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey...
Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month.
By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends.
This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.
With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.
If tech stocks are signaling that a bottom is in, we're of the mind that we'll find some significant beta in a badly beaten household name: The recently renamed Meta $META (otherwise known as Facebook...).
Chatting with JC this morning, he was drawing a comparison of META to what Gold Miners $GDX did in 2016:
In the arsenal of every trader and technical analyst lies a countless number of indicators, metrics, and tools.
Everyone in the business is aware of the classic indicators: moving averages, Fibonacci extensions, momentum oscillators... the list goes on.
Perhaps one of the most valuable tools is the AVWAP. This is merely a representation of the average price by volume anchored to a specific time.
The AVWAP works because it takes advantage of human psychology. It's universally accepted within the scientific community that humans are driven by a slew of biases. Ask any trader, and they'll attest.
An incredibly common heuristic that drives much of the financial industry is the age-old anchoring bias. Many traders irrationally make decisions solely based on the price they paid for a stock.
In this sense, the market is driven by these participants responding to supply/demand dynamics within the context of their personal anchoring.
The implications of such indicators are that they allow us to gauge an aggregate cost basis of specific securities, ETFs, and financial instruments anchored...
When the worst stocks on the planet can't go down any more, that's usually good information.
We saw a lot of Small-cap Growth, Arkk Funds, Biotech, Chinese Internet and many of those other "Growthy" areas bottom out this Spring, and some of the last ones in June.
At the Mega-cap level, nothing caused more shareholder wealth destruction than Facebook, down 60% from its highs less than a year ago.
With a few breadth thrusts in recent weeks, and a little preview of what a weaker dollar could do to this market, we had plenty to talk about.
This question included: New Bull or Mean Reversion in a Bear?
I think the S&P500 tells an interesting story. You've got that massive top that formed throughout the past year, completing with a break of support this Spring.
And after further selling, the bounce has brought it back all the...