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.

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:

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.

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.

They said it was game over for these stocks.

They’ll never see those valuations again.

They are just stories. They don’t have profits.

They can’t survive a rising rate environment.

We’ve heard it all about speculative growth stocks over the past few years.

Cathie Wood and the entire ARK Invest strategy has been lambasted by the media. 

You’ve seen the cover stories. They tried to destroy her. 

But Cathie’s ARK didn’t wreck. It survived the storm. 

And I think it’s bigger than that. I think the most speculative, highest risk, longest duration equities are about to have their time in the sun again. 

Everything I’m seeing suggests we are entering that part of the cycle where the worst stocks become the best stocks. 

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify 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.

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.

It was a busy week for stocks, but the most important price action was elsewhere.

The US Dollar is getting rocked as risk-on currencies catch big bids.

And it’s all happening at a critical level, that if violated, could mark a major shift in the intermarket landscape.

The one big question all investors should be asking themselves right now is simple…

“What is the best trade if this is a failed breakout in the dollar?”

In other words, what goes up the most if the dollar gets slammed back into the box?

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.

Here's this week's list:

The bid for Chinese equities has been relentless all year long.

Alibaba is up about 50% over the trailing month.

BYD Co is up about 30% in February alone.

Xiaomi Corp is making new all-time highs.

Even the iShares China Large Cap Index has rallied 20% off its January lows.

You get the point. China is red hot. 

With price action like this, you might start to wonder, “where is all the money coming from!?”

And the answer is probably a lot of places. Who knows.

But one area that has definitely become a source of funds for new China bulls… is India.