Suppose you're watching the evening cable news, reading the New York Times (or newspaper of your choice), or paying attention to your echo chamber on the socials. You'd be right to assume all the economies of the world (both friends and enemies of the U.S.) are staring into the abyss and their stock markets are about to be cut in half.

That's cool if you'd like to live that way. I doubt it'll make you any money, though.

You're smarter than that. This is why you're here. We're not affected by headlines. We follow price.

And the relentless bid in Chinese stocks cannot be ignored.

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.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. New position in XLI.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

People are scared.

They're getting margin called.

Exchanges forced them out of their positions because they were so recklessly long.

In fact, the crypto market saw over $2B in liquidations these last few days.

Nine times out of ten, these are tremendous periods of opportunity because shortly after the market finds a bottom.

I went live yesterday to discuss what's happened to cause this volatility and more importantly what we're doing about it to take advantage and make money.

Last week, we discussed gold closing at its highest price in years relative to the broader commodities complex.

We don't anticipate this will change anytime soon. 

We think the breadth of the precious metals market is about to change. So far, gold and silver have been the only ones to participate.

But what about platinum and palladium? Will they ever catch up?

We think the answer to that question is a resounding yes, and here's why.

Check out these monthly candlesticks 👇

Regardless of the market environment, a company like Visa will keep printing money. 

Considering the vast majority of purchases involve credit cards these days and Visa is a dominant player in the space, Visa takes a small cut every time you swipe or tap your card. Good business to be in!

And the chart of $V backs this up.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. New position in IGV.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

Futures are down this morning, but barely.

Bonds have been flat for most of the overnight session. So has Gold.

If this was real volatility, you would actually see the volatility. Currently, we are not.

I've spent the weekend preparing for tonight's LIVE Monthly Charts Strategy Session.

I've analyzed thousands of companies, indexes and intermarket relationships all over the world.

Here's the conclusion.

Wait for it....

This is a bull market.

And Tariffs or no Tariffs, as investors, I believe that it's still business as usual as long as these uptrends remain in place.

For the S&P500, we're looking at about 5600, or 560 in the $SPY. If we're above that, then the series of higher lows and higher highs is still intact.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended January 3, 2025. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

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.