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

We’ve pounded the table on the weakness in energy these past few days, so why stop now? When we find ourselves hammering the same topic time and again, there’s usually a very good reason.

As far as energy goes, there’s been a lot of damage done to the space this week.

Breadth fell off a cliff and was not supporting the new highs for energy stocks.

The relative trends have gotten clobbered, as energy has been among the worst-performing sectors over the near term.

And, just today, we’re seeing failed breakouts in energy sector ETFs across the board.

Since we’ve already written about these themes, let’s dive in and see what energy futures themselves have to say about the situation.

Are futures resilient despite these bearish developments? 

Or are there cautionary signs in the commodities market that are confirming the weakness in the stock market?

Let’s find out.

...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Energy has been by far the best-performing sector over the trailing 12-month period.

In October, we witnessed a handful of energy stocks and industry ETFs break higher from bases and reclaim their summer highs.

Without a doubt, these are bullish developments for the space. 

But over the trailing month, energy has lost that leadership position and has actually been the worst-performing sector in the market. 

Today, we’re seeing a lot of the upside resolutions from last month undercut their former highs and turn into failed breakouts.

So, where do we go from here?

When we look at the relative trends in the energy sector, we get a much different picture than what we’re seeing on absolute terms. Most of them never resolved higher like their absolute trends and simply remain messy, with prices stalling at the upper bounds of their basing patterns.

If we’re going to see sustained outperformance from energy stocks, we need to see them resolve higher relative to the broader market. 

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

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a handful of major indexes, like small and mid-caps, resolve higher and kick off a fresh up leg. But breadth has really cooled off since then, as participation has been declining despite the major averages rallying.

This week, we’re finally seeing that weakness show up at the index level -- particularly from SMIDs and cyclicals.

When we were reviewing our breadth charts, we noticed the deterioration in energy sector internals has been particularly bad. Not only is breadth not confirming the new highs from energy stocks… but there are actually some pretty ugly divergences in our new high indicators. 

Energy stocks are currently vulnerable, sitting just above their breakout level at former resistance. Considering the lack of support from internals, this group is on failed breakout watch.

Let’s take a look under the hood and discuss what we’re seeing.

Energy has been coiling in a continuation pattern above its year-to-date highs around 56 for over a month now. You can see this in the upper pane of this chart:...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

On Tuesday night we held our November Monthly Conference Call, which Premium Members can access and re-watch here.

In this post, we’ll summarize it by highlighting five of the most important charts and/or themes we covered, along with commentary on each.

Let’s get right into it!

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

TIPS versus Treasuries is one of the most important charts we’re watching right now, as it's hitting its highest level since early 2013. Relative strength from TIPS hints that investors are positioning themselves for a sustained surge in inflation.

This makes sense given both the five- and 10-year breakeven inflation rates have reached their highest levels in more than a decade. 

As investors react to signs of impending inflation, many cyclical stocks that benefit from higher rates are catching a bid. A great example of this is the Metals and Mining ETF $XME.

Let's take a look!

Below is a chart of XME overlaid with the TIPS versus Treasuries ratio and correlation study in the lower pane:

If investors are anticipating higher inflation in...

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...

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.

By adding our technical...

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

The US Dollar Index $DXY is pressing to new highs, disregarding what many think it should be doing based on historic intermarket relationships.

Considering the bullish developments and new highs from risk assets, the strength from the US dollar continues to be a head-scratcher.

But will the breakout in the DXY hold, or will it roll over and confirm the signals coming from bonds, stocks, and commodities?

When we broke down the US Dollar Index last month, we pointed out that its strength was rather narrow in terms of how it was performing relative to most individual currencies. Long story short, the recent rally in DXY has been fueled primarily by its two largest components -- the euro and the yen. These two currencies make up more than 70% of the DXY weighting, and the fact that they are at new 52-week lows explains why the index is at new highs.

But we're still not seeing the same kind...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our latest "Under The Hood" column, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended November 12, 2021. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our "Minor Leaguers" column.

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.

Watch this video for a "...

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

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.

• This week, our macro universe was negative as 68% of our list closed lower with a median return of -0.38%.
• US 10-Year Yield $TNX was the big winner, closing out the week with more than an 8% gain.
• The biggest loser was Lumber $LB, with a weekly loss of -12.18%
• There was no change in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 70%.
• 15% made new 4-week lows.
• Meanwhile, 21%%...

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.

The Bond Market Has the Answers

Another potential bearish development that is on our radar right now is continued pressure on the long end of the yield curve. While the short end has held up much better, we’ve seen long-duration rates crumble back toward their summer lows over the last month or so. While treasury spreads have contracted and the curve has flattened a bit since the summer, we don’t find these developments too concerning considering where yields have come from since last summer. It’s only normal for the short-end to play catch up a bit in a rising rate environment. Although, what bulls definitely do not want to see, is yields break down to new lows on an absolute basis. Since the long end is moving the fastest, the weakness will show up there first. As such, we’re watching the 30-Year US Yield very closely as it retests its key summer lows. It appears to have found support there for now....