I keep hearing that today’s FOMC announcement and press conference will be a snoozefest.

I couldn’t disagree more.

I think a major development is riding on the market's expectation for future rate cuts.

In recent weeks, the expectations for the next rate cut have moved forward.

During this time, Trump has put pressure on the Fed, and the latest CPI report showed inflation cooling.

But, the reason doesn’t matter as much as the fact that the bond market is buying the story.

The US 10-yr has fallen from about 4.8% to 4.55% in the last two weeks.

More importantly, it’s taking the US Dollar with it.

DXY is the most critical chart in the world right now and it is moving with the bond market and investors’ expectations for interest rates.

If Powell gives any indication that they are moving lower sooner today, it could be the catalyst needed to fail this breakout and send DXY back into its old range.

If the dollar rolls over here or even falls back into a sideways trend, the impact could be massive for risk assets.

And I don’t just mean US equities. I think international stocks stand to win more than...

I’m really grateful for the path I took in getting where I am today.

I wasn’t always hanging out on an island trading and covering the stock market.

I put in my time. 

I started my career in the Big 4, auditing some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

I spent long nights ticking and tying financial statements and testing derivative valuations for companies like Morgan Stanley and Interactive Brokers.

I know the strangest things about these companies' fundamentals and their history. I made friends and memories I’ll never forget. I was in the room for some historic market events. When I think back on some chapters of my early adult life, they were literally set in these offices. 

But none of the non-public information I learned at these places back in the day is relevant or material now. I have an insider's understanding of these businesses, but no special information about them. 

And I don’t need it. I’m a long-term bull on a lot of these companies simply because of the people who run them. Some have been great mentors over the...

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:

*Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month.

Then, we...

Bears just can’t seem to score any points lately.

They continue to struggle at breaking down even the worst areas of the market. We keep seeing it.

Solar stocks are the latest example.

The whole group was bid up today with some huge moves from the heavily-shorted names. 

Here’s the Solar Index $TAN:

TAN suffered its worst single day performance since the 2020 crash following the election in November. It fell over 10% to new cycle lows.

However, there has been little follow-through in the time since. And today, we saw a nice pop off the pivot lows from last month.

Also notice how TAN hasn’t been oversold for more than a year now as selling pressure has waned. I think bears are slowly losing control. 

They are also positioned way offside when it comes to this basket of stocks. Some of the largest short positions in the market are in the indexes components.

And we can’t finish the bullish argument without discussing the obvious political tailwinds under the new Trump administration.

While I’m...

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.

The bottom line is it is a bull market. We...

JC has really been bringing the heat with his chart game lately.

I just rewatched the monthly conference call from Monday night where he ripped through over 115 charts. 

He went over a ton of valuable topics and themes, from forex to sentiment and even some risk appetite.You can sign up here and watch it. These calls are one of the best things we do at All Star Charts.

In the meantime, I stole two of my favorite charts from his slide deck to share with you.

Here’s the first one. This is a textbook topping formation in Eli Lilly $LLY with a peak marked by the old reliable magazine cover indicator from October of last year.

The timing from these headline writers is just too good sometimes. This is the millionth example. They nailed it again.

They call them the “everything drugs.” They are probably not, but let's just go with it. This excerpt is all you need to know about the vibe on the street for GLP-1 stocks.

“[GLP-1 drugs] started as treatments for...

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.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, no stranger to headline-grabbing stock moves, is back in the spotlight with her latest Periodic Transaction Report—and it’s a big one.

The former Speaker of the House is making bold plays in some of the hottest sectors, doubling down on AI, and other growth trends, while dumping shares in Apple.

Here’s an update of her filing from Friday:

Pelosi recently sold 31,600 shares of Apple $AAPL, with a transaction value of roughly $8 million.

While she has been bullish on Apple in the past, this marks a notable reduction in her exposure. We know that she acquired about half the shares she just sold via call options back in May 2022. She made more than 80% on them.

So, Nancy is bearish Apple. But, we don’t follow her for her insider sales, we follow the Pelosi portfolio because it has been early to some of the best trends in growth investing. The Pelosi’s were early to NVDA. She has...

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.

...

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:

This one is wild, but hear me out.

I just wrote about how the worst groups aren't breaking down.

Support zones are holding and bears are struggling to take control at key levels.

We’re seeing it with both short and longer term patterns and we’re seeing it across all areas of the market. Bulls keep digging in where they need to.

So I came across this pattern in Nike and thought why not. 

Make no mistake this is a purely technical call… for the most part.

I mean, seriously. Nike is one of the all-time great American brands. That still counts for something.

I’m always thinking about the strongest stocks.

Over the intermediate term, consumer discretionary is on top, rallying more than 40% off the summer lows.

So this is one of the areas where I’m searching for strength right now.

It’s the traditional top-down exercise for picking stocks.

The best way to go about it is to use the relative trends and drill down from sector, to industry, and eventually all the way to the individual component level.

While doing this today, I was flipping through my discretionary industry charts, and the relative ratio for Homebuilders really stood out. 

Here it is retesting a massive base breakout level from above.

This is the Dow Jones Home Construction Index $ITB relative to the Discretionary Sector SPDR $XLY. 

If the ratio digs in and bounces higher here, this is a structural trend reversal for the homebuilders versus their peer group.

The relative trend for homies vs the broader market looks similar. We’re talking about multi-decade bases that are just now resolving higher.