From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

At the beginning of each week, we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

Looking at the past helps put the future into context. In this post, we review the absolute and relative trends at play and preview some of the things we’re watching to profit in the weeks and months ahead.

The bullish picture still lies as a structural backdrop.

But now, we're seeing mixed signals as many areas have become increasingly vulnerable in recent weeks. This is all taking place as defensive assets have found a footing for the first time in over a year, while risk-on assets approach logical levels of supply.

Recent weakness has been particularly isolated in former leadership groups, like Small-Caps and Growth-heavy areas. 

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.

By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. We can then put these near-term developments into the context of the big picture and glean insights into the structural trends at play.

Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:

* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

Macro Universe:

We've been talking about this rotation out of Growth Stocks and into Value Stocks since last year. The trend here has been very strong.

We keep seeing this all over. Check this out for more.

Another chart that stood out this weekend was the number of new 52-week highs on the NYSE, which has much more exposure to value and much less growth.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq, which is almost all Growth, isn't seeing these new highs at all.

No one wants them.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest "Minor Leaguers" report.

We've already had some great trades come out of this Small-Cap focused column since we launched it late last year and started rotating it with our flagship bottoms-up scan, "Under The Hood."

Ultimately, to make the cut for our Minor Leagues list, you must have a market cap between $1 and $2B. There are also price and liquidity filters.

Then, we simply sort by proximity to new highs in order to focus on the best players only.

This week we're looking at two long setups in the Pharma sector. With Nifty Pharma breaking out above its resistance of 13,500, a couple of stocks that we've been tracking for quite some time now have also followed through with a breakout.

Let's take a look at these names and track their levels going forward.

Have you noticed how it's the Value sectors that keep shining this year?

It's not Tech. It's not growth.

This isn't 2020.

This is 2021. 

Deal with it.

When was the last time you saw relative strength like this coming from Financials and Materials?

Every month we get a fresh batch of Monthly Candlesticks. It only happens 12 times a year.

I promise you guys from the bottom of my heart that there is no other part of my entire process that provides as much value and information as my monthly chart review. Premium Members can access the Chartbook here.

In the meantime, my friend Josh Brown and I have been doing these short monthly videos since last summer.

On this latest episode we talk about how the market is behaving like it normally does in Year 2 of Bull Market cycles. Choppy, messy, and with a much different profile than the prior year. And, not only is that normal, but anything else would be historically abnormal.

Defensive areas like Consumer Staples, Gold, Bonds and Japanese Yen have been shining. We didn't see that in Year 1. It was the exact opposite.

We like shorting the Nasdaq here and being very picky when looking for Value stocks to buy.

This is always a fun chat.

Hope you enjoy it!

The story of Value stocks continuing to be the leaders is something we absolutely cannot ignore.

But have you noticed? Many investors are ignoring it, particularly in the United States. "I'm a Growth Investor", is what they tell me lol. What even is that?

You can really see this rotation taking place in the ratio between the Nasdaq100 and the NYSE Composite:

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 longer-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 5-9 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 & relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley.

We held our May Monthly Strategy Session Monday night which Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

For these calls, we really take a step back and put things in the context of their structural trends by focusing only on Monthly charts. This is easily one of our most valuable exercises.

In this post, we’ll provide a summary of the call by highlighting three of the most important charts and topics we covered along with commentary on each.

Anybody who has been tracking the market closely has noticed that the one sector which has been displaying the most strength off late is Metals. The sector-specific stocks have generated handsome returns in a short span of time and don't seem to be slowing down as well.

So for those who missed this rally, or those who are already invested, what are the levels to track going forward? We've got you covered.

Here is a comprehensive list of the best stocks from the sector. Some of these are actionable and some are price targets to track.

For me saying, "I'm a growth investor", is just a lazy way of saying, "I can't overcome my recency bias."

How is it not?

There's a time and a place for everything right? I mean, we're even buying Gold and Gold Miners these days, a far cry from the "Stay away at all costs" mentality that we've had towards those useless rocks since last August.

Same with Growth stocks. They had been the place to be for a long time, ESPECIALLY when compared to Value sectors like Energy, Materials and Bank stocks!

That all changed last September.

It's a Value World now my friends: