Sellers have dominated the tape for the past several weeks.

Any bid for stocks since we rolled over in February has been weak and short-lived.

At the same time, we are more than due for a serious bounce.

Some sentiment metrics are at wash-out levels. 

Put volume is at record highs.

US stock indexes are deeply oversold. 

In the case of Nasdaq 100 futures, this is worse than the pandemic lows from 2020. 

But oversold can always get more oversold.

And when it comes to sentiment data, there is simply no signal without confirmation from price.

So, I just gotta see it at this point. 

A rebound rally is surely coming, but how much selling will happen first? And how good will it be?

There definitely won’t be a meaningful bounce until we string together some consecutive up days. We haven’t seen back-to-back green candles in the S&P since its peak in February. 

Literally, zero bullish follow-through in almost a month. That needs to change for markets to make a...

What does “the best week ever” mean to you?

For me, it means one thing. 

Momentum thrust.

Momentum thrusts come in two forms… initiation and exhaustion. 

The former signals the beginning of a new trend, and the latter marks the end of an existing one.

For this reason, it’s very important to identify what kind of thrust we’re dealing with. You don’t want to get that part wrong. Luckily, we have tools for this, and it’s not hard.

Anyway, I’m talking about international equities. I think the backdrop is set up perfectly for a big seed change in favor of ex-US stocks. 

We talked about it on the blog a few weeks ago, and it’s happening in a big way as we speak. 

Today, we made a checklist of the most important charts in the market. 

We came up with about 20 key levels that, if broken, would suggest the end of the bull market.

Our list covers things from the major averages to crypto, and even some commodities and relative ratios. 

There are so many big levels being tested right now. In many cases, they are the prior-cycle highs, which means violations will result in some nasty failed breakouts.

We’re going to track them all closely and weigh the evidence. As more and more of these levels give way, we will turn increasingly bearish.

But, for me, one chart matters so much more than the rest over the short-term. Actually let’s just call it three, since it is the same situation for all of them.

Here’s a look at the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Industrial Average all digging in at their VWAPs from the August lows. These are the most important stock market indexes in the world.

They are all testing crucial support and rebounding in synchrony.

We’ve seen this story before. This won’t be...

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It really looks like game over for crypto. Hear me out. 

Last week, I wrote a post about how I’m turning bearish. I’m out and even a little short. It’s been going well.

Then last night, Trump tweets about the crypto reserve and sets the whole space on fire.

Cardano is rallying 60%, and I’m sitting in my office preparing a list of things I need to see to turn bullish again. 

But by the time traditional markets opened today, it was clear this move was a head-fake. It was more of the same. 

Despite the bullish headlines, all the Sunday fireworks would be erased.

We’ve already discussed the sentiment of the asset class and how cryptos have reacted to news lately. It’s a big part of my bearish thesis. But, this is a new low.

Think about it. 

Crypto was public enemy number one just last year.

Now, we don’t just have a friendly and favorable regulatory environment...

It is always good to play a little devil’s advocate.

One of the things JC has got me accustomed to doing over the years is thinking like a bear… even when I’m not bearish.

“Make your best bear case,” he’d say. 

“What are the worst charts right now?”

It’s something we do just as a thought exercise. Even in the best of bull markets, this is a valuable technique.

Anyway, I thought of it today because I’m finding it uncomfortably easy to paint a negative outlook on stocks lately. 

And I’m not alone. Market sentiment is in the dumps as the bearish evidence keeps piling in.

So, I went to the analyst team and asked them for their most bearish charts this morning.

Let’s look at some and talk about what they mean.

First up, this one is from the Fons:

He talked about this failed break in the discretionary vs staples ratio in his note the other day.

Nvidia just reported its third consecutive earnings report without a significant market reaction.

The stock didn’t do much when they reported back in August and November of last year. And it’s not doing much again today, trading down by less than 1% after-hours.

As for the technical outlook, nothing changes. Nvidia is still stuck in the same range it has been trading in since last summer.

JC and the guys did a live event to discuss the earnings numbers and the stock’s reaction after the bell today. You can rewatch it here.

We only hold these events when there is something big to discuss, and the truth about NVDA is that it is far and away the most important stock for the overall market.

And it’s less about anything specific to do with AI or Nvidia’s business, and more to do with the stock's massive weighting in the major averages and indexes.

Semiconductors are the most critically-important industry group in the market. If we lose the semis, and we lose NVDA...

I’ve been thinking a lot about if this could be the end…

On the Morning Show today we talked about whether the bull market for stocks could continue if we lost Bitcoin.

The answer is it definitely could. But, wouldn’t it be strange? 

Crypto and stocks have danced together for a long time.

However, I think it’s less about crypto and more about the overall risk appetite of the market. 

Bitcoin is just one part of it. When I think about risk on corners of the market and the kind of things that should be working during a healthy bull cycle I’m thinking of homebuilders, semiconductors, and banks… to name a few groups. 

But I’m also looking into the relationships between groups. In particular, I’m analyzing the performance of offensive stocks versus defensive stocks. The best ratio for this has always been discretionary vs staples.

XLY/XLP ranks second to none when it comes to the assessment of risk appetite.

Cryptocurrencies and crypto stocks are reacting negatively to some of the most positive news they’ve had in years.

It all just speaks to the recent mood shift for Bitcoin and friends. Since the election rally, it hasn’t gone well.

And just think of the news cycle. The first crypto president. A strategic BTC reserve. A non-predatory SEC. Crypto fund approvals. 

The headlines couldn’t be more bullish.

Yet, the average altcoin has suffered a 60% drawdown, and there are literally no cryptos holding up outside of Bitcoin.

I think the next leg for Bitcoin will be lower, as it gets in line with the rest of its asset class. 

In this post, I’ll explain why and what I’m doing about it.

When I think of Bitcoin, I also think of Solana, Ethereum, Coinbase, and Microstrategy… the whole group should work together. It always has. When...

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.

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. 

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?

Or even, what will be the best trends if the dollar heads back to the lower bounds of its range?

And I have some thoughts on this. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.

I was expecting the dollar to become a tailwind last year. It didn’t happen. A falling dollar was the one thing missing during the post-election rally. But I think it’s coming now.

When I think about a weak dollar, I think about international equities. The most offensive areas of the global stock market should fare well with a falling dollar. Emerging...

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. 

This is a ratio chart of Chinese stocks vs Indian stocks, and it is flashing a textbook trend reversal in favor of China.

The relationship had been skewed toward India in a big way up until last year. In fact, Indian stocks have been outperforming China aggressively for almost a decade now. This all began back in 2016, so...