Small-caps have had a really hard time this year.

Almost every Small-cap sector is down since the highs in late December. That was 2 months ago.

The day the US Dollar Index bottomed was the exact day that Small-caps stopped going up in price.

That was also the same day that the US 10yr Yield bottomed.

I don't believe that was a coincidence.

You're welcome to.

What I see is a group of stocks struggling to make any progress. It's hard to underperform the Small-cap indexes, but somehow Financials found a way.

Here are Small-cap Financials, which are loaded up with regional bank stocks, rolling over and making new 4-month lows relative to the Small-cap 600 Index.

A lot of people are making a ton of money right now in Crypto Markets.

Bitcoin hit new 52-week highs this week.

Ethereum made a new 52-week high TODAY.

And my CryptoPunk is up over 170% in just 4 months.

To be clear, this internet picture I own is up over $100,000 in just a few months.

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.

Are you paying attention?

This market is not like the one we were in back in November.

Have you adapted to this environment?

Or are you still doing the same things you were doing 3 months ago?

Take a look at High Beta vs Low Volatility going out for the week at the lowest levels since mid-January:

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Commodities are making moves.

Cotton is forming a bull flag following last week’s breakout. Coffee futures are coiling below a critical polarity zone. Cattle and hogs are running wild. Even Dr.Copper is perking up, posting positive returns over the trailing five days.

And don’t forget about cocoa futures as they continue to print fresh all-time highs. 

With all this action heating up, let’s turn our attention to one of 2021’s most explosive markets…

Lumber.

Remember all the lumber memes on Twitter?

Dudes were posting their W’s sitting atop stacks of 2x4s and plywood. I’ll never forget it. 

As a trader, I prefer to avoid lumber futures. It’s a thin market. But I can’t ignore the yearlong base forming on the daily chart:

This is the video recording of the February 2024 Mid-month Conference Call.

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:

You know the old saying that Bull Markets are more fun than Bear Markets?

It's true.

And not because you can't make money in a bear market. You can. In fact, you usually make money much faster in bear markets. That's just how the market behaves.

But the truth is that bull markets are definitely more fun.

I can tell you from first hand experience over the years. The parties in bull markets are more fun and they are more frequent, than in bear markets.

Last night was definitely a bull market party. Josh Brown turned 46 and I turned 42.

Strazza even flew up to New York for the festivities.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Fed Chair Jerome Powell continues to rule the markets with an iron fist, mercilessly punishing any who doubt his supreme will. 

Or maybe I should stop daydreaming at my desk. 

Either way, this little fantasy is a helluva lot more entertaining than the monotonous uptrend in US Treasury yields. 

But I’ve found boredom – when not taken seriously – can lead to neglect.

That’s where process steps in to save the day. 

It’s hard for the market to catch us off guard if we’re constantly reviewing the charts.

And these next two bond charts demand our full attention…

First, the High Yield Bond ETF $HYG relative to the US Treasury Bond ETF $IEI: 

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Junior International Hall of Famers.

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-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

This scan is composed of the next 100 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 100 and are thus covered by the International Hall of Famers universe.

Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original International Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

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

This is our Junior International Hall of Famers list:

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.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

The volatility in stocks continues as 2024 progresses.

Have you noticed how different this market is vs the one we were in throughout November and December?

The swings are getting wider, and they're coming in both directions.

Just yesterday, the Nasdaq hit new lows not seen since January.

Meanwhile, there isn't a single small-cap sector that is above its December highs.

There's still a lot of work that stocks need to do to dig them out of this hole.