From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We held our April Monthly Strategy Session earlier this week. Premium Members can access and rewatch it here.

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.

How I learned it more than a couple of decades ago was that there were 3 asset classes: Stocks, Bonds AND Commodities.

But a funny thing happened throughout the 2010s. Commodities did so poorly, particularly when you compare their performance to Stocks and Bonds, that investors completely forgot that Commodities were an asset class.

Many newer investors never even knew in the first place.

But yes folks, there are 3 asset classes. And that 3rd one that everyone conveniently forgot about is the one that is dominating returns this cycle.

Here is a ratio of Commodities to Bonds in a strong uptrend as everyone keeps telling me that interest rates are falling.

It's actually the exact opposite. Interest rates keep going up, as Commodities rip higher and bonds keep falling apart.

You're going to tell me this isn't an uptrend?

Everything started to change in February.

We were right here talking about it.

You saw the major shift in March for sure. It was obvious to everyone.

But the cracks actually started to show up in early February.

In fact, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq100 are still at the same levels they were in early February.

The Russell2000 and S&P600 Small-cap Indexes are both still below their December highs.

Apple just hit the lowest levels since October, making this one of the best bearish positions we put on this year, outside of the $LULU trade.

Both of these have worked out very well.

And I think there are more of these epic downtrends coming.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Can we all give the rate cut debate a break?

Everyone is obsessing over the Fed’s rate cut plans. Meanwhile, interest rates are climbing to their highest level since early December.

Instead of following Fed gossip and what-ifs, focus on what is: Yields continue to creep higher as inflationary assets rip.

Check out our Global Benchmark Rate Composite, an equal-weight basket of Developed Market 10-year yields (Germany, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and the US):

Our global composite is holding well above the lower bounds of a yearlong range, catching toward the underside of a flat 200-day moving average. 

Yields on sovereign debt show no signs of an imminent collapse.

You already know me very well.

When do I ever talk about the potential for a 30x return?

The answer is never.

It's just not in my DNA.

This is not how I approach the market. This is not how I like to talk. And quite frankly, I usually laugh at those who do.

That's the truth.

But every now and than, but almost never, an opportunity presents itself that we rarely see in markets.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports...

We also highlight lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

You didn't fall for those lies about falling interest rates did you?

At this point, it's 2024.

We know for a fact that Wall Street banks are not here to help you or tell you the truth. That's not the business they're in.

The Financial Media has never been in the business of telling you the truth, so that's nothing new.

But the fact that they've been telling you all year that interest rates are going lower is hilarious.

None of these groups of people are here to help you. They're only here to help themselves.

And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with a Bank trying to profit for their shareholders. Just like there's nothing wrong with a media business trying to profit for their respective parent companies.

Profits are good.

Just don't think for one second that they're going to put your needs ahead of theirs lol.

Everything changed in February.

You started to see the cracks in January, but the big changes in market dynamics really got going in early- to mid-February.

And then March came, when everyone else saw it.

Look at the Sector Performance last month, for example.

Energy stocks were up double digits.

Technology stocks were DOWN.

Consumer Discretionary stocks were DOWN.

This is the video recording of our April 1st Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

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 29, 2024. 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.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

People are asking me if gold's breakout is the real deal.

All I can do is smile, state my bullish outlook, and draw a line in the sand.

Of course, I can’t resist adding an obnoxious upside target or two (the higher, the better).

Hopefully, it sounds simple. That’s the goal! It never pays to overcomplicate price action…. 

If you’re still wondering whether precious metals are a viable investment despite gold’s new all-time highs, let’s identify the underlying trend…

Steve Strazza brought up charts of the energy, materials, and commodities sectors on today's Flow Show. These are "peer indexes," meaning they often trend together.

And the current trends suggest we need to add more bullish positions in these areas.

The one name that stood out the most was Freeport McMoRan $FCX: