From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley

Last week, we pointed out that commodity-centric currencies were beginning to slide. 

Our petrocurrency index was making new 52-week lows, and the Australian dollar was on the verge of breaking down. By Friday’s close, the AUD/USD cross looked to have completed a topping pattern and was trading at its lowest level since the summer of 2020.

Seeing one of the world’s leading commodity currencies break down from a major distribution pattern would not bode well for commodities and other risk assets.

But the bulls aren't ready to roll over yet. Investors are back on offense this week, as buyers have already repaired all or most of the damage that was done to stocks and commodities last week.

They needed to come out swinging after the latest flurry of selling pressure… And that’s exactly what they did! 

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.

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 bottom-up scan, “Under The Hood.”

We recently decided to expand our universe to include some mid-caps…

For about a year now, we’ve focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B. That was fun, but it’s time we branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

The way we’re doing this is simple…

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

Stocks Test September Highs

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Transportation Average are both struggling at key Fibonacci extension levels from their 2018 drawdowns. Mid-caps and bank stocks are trapped back beneath key levels of overhead supply at their first-half highs. And the small-cap Russell 2000 is trading back toward the lower bounds of its year-to-date range. The majority of stocks are simply consolidating in holding patterns right now.

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. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big-picture context and provides insights regarding 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

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 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 which you can check out here.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 100 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 Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Risk assets are under pressure.

Failed breakouts and significant retracements have materialized across cyclical areas of the market, including the Russell 2000, the energy and financial sectors, and, of course, commodities.

The energy complex has endured the most severe damage in the commodities realm, with crude oil leading the pack lower. Last Friday’s session was a bruiser, with crude dropping $10 to close out the week.

This kind of volatility can be alarming for any investor.

But when we zoom out--as we like to to at the end of each month--and focus on commodities as a whole, two key takeaways come to the forefront: 

1. The underlying uptrend is still intact.
2.  A period of digestion within the ongoing trend is well deserved. 

Let’s take a look at a couple commodity indexes and try to put the recent action into perspective.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza

It's been about a month since small- and mid-caps resolved to the upside and made fresh highs.

As we all are aware, these were simply massive head-fakes. We're right back to where we started--stuck in the middle of the same range we've been in all year.

There was also plenty of evidence from our intermarket relationships and ratios to support these moves. Discretionary-versus-staples ratios broke to fresh highs. Copper versus gold. Stocks versus bonds. Inflation expectations. They all made new highs recently. But, just like most stocks on an absolute basis, many of these breakouts have since failed.

Of all these developments, it's hard to argue that any is more important than the stocks-versus-bonds ratio retracing back beneath its Q1 highs. With long rates making new lows and stocks selling off, let's talk about how we are approaching both of these asset classes right now.

Here's the S&P 500 $SPY relative to long-term Treasury bonds $TLT, zoomed out to the early 2000s.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

Breakouts and breadth expansion kicked off the month of November. 

But the market had other ideas... 

Instead of fresh legs higher, investors were dealt a handful of downside reversals and failed moves. Last week, we went from discussing breakouts and new highs for stocks... to throwbacks and retests of old ranges. This all happened in the matter of a few trading sessions.

A lot has changed in a short period. In times like these, it’s important to take a good look under the hood to see what market internals are suggesting.

As we reviewed our breadth chartbook today, we asked ourselves the following questions: 

Are we seeing a notable expansion in new lows? Is it enough that we should be worried?

Let’s take a look beneath the surface and see if we can find some answers!

First, let’s check in on the 21-day and 63-day lows for the S&P 500:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza 

We held our December Monthly Strategy Session last night. Premium Members can click here to review the recording and the accompanying slides.

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 a valuable exercise, 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.

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.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley

Treasury yield spreads are contracting.

Inflation has been the talk of the town in recent weeks. But, now that the Federal Reserve has finally joined the chorus, the market seems to be headed in a different direction. At least over the near term.

Short rates are holding up just fine, but the longer end of the curve has been under serious pressure.

We’ve been closely monitoring long-duration rates for signs of further weakness. As we write, the 30-year is violating its summer lows, and the 10-year is testing a critical level of interest around 1.40%.

The bulls really need these levels to hold. If they don't, we’d better get used to the recent volatility--because it’s likely to get worse.

Let’s take a deeper look!

This is a weekly chart of the US 10-year yield: