One of the charts that stood out the most to me during last week's Conference Call was the relative strength in Communications. While Tech and Discretionary corrected over the prior month, Communications marched on:

We saw that relative strength once again this week with Communications up and the Nasdaq down yet again.

And we're not just seeing new all-time highs on an absolute basis either. Relative to the S&P500, this thing continues to run:

In case you hadn't heard, Commodity prices are soaring. The CRB Commodities Index has practically doubled over the past year.

And while sure, many assets are up a lot over the past 12 months, it's the fact that the Commodities Index is above the 2016 lows that makes it a big deal for me. Same with interest rates. If the US 10yr Yield and CRB Index are above those lows, then inflation is here baby!

Get used to it.

We're seeing it across the intermarket landscape.

And speaking of landscape, did you see the Global Timber & Forestry Index breaking out to new all-time highs?

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

Overall, Commodities came under pressure this past week.

We noticed many markets running into resistance at former highs, and this was most prevalent in the Energy sector, with the exception of Ethanol.

Other areas of the Commodity space like Grains and Softs also showed short-term weakness. However, there were still some bright spots as usual.

Two of the markets that really stood out were Lean Hogs and Palladium.

First up, Lean Hogs broke out of a 6.5-year base, clearing its pivotal 2019 highs.

You know when Livestock futures are breaking out of half-decade long bases that Commodities are most likely in a bull market.

I believe the saying goes, "the bigger the base the higher in space."

If that's going to be at all true then we want to be buying Hogs above 98 with a target of 133.

Palladium also registered a nice move this week as this long-term leader in the Precious Metals space broke out of a 12-...

Most arguments about the market would never even take place if investors would just acknowledge that they have different time horizons.

"JC, what do you think of Amazon here?"

"JC, what's your favorite stock right now?"

"JC, should we buy this pullback?"

These are all completely irrelevant questions if you haven't first identified your time horizon.

Two things we've been pointing to this week are the potential failed breakouts in Small-caps and Micro-cap stocks, which would confirm a series of bearish momentum divergences. And also the relative strength out of Consumer Staples throughout March, which is something we haven't seen in a long long time....

Remember, Consumer Staples outperforming is consistent with a market environment where stocks are under pressure.

Here's that chart showing Staples potentially confirming a rare "Diamond" reversal pattern relative to the S&P500:

The latest All Star Charts Monthly Conference Call (subscriber link) is in the books and no doubt JC and the team had to chug a pot (or two) of coffee to get through that blizzard of charts.

Judging by the performance of the publicly traded Starbucks stock, our team are clearly not the only investors who rely on a caffeine boost to perform our best.

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

We recently held March’s Monthly Conference Call which our Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

In this post, we’ll provide a summary of the call by highlighting 5 of the most important charts/topics we covered along with commentary on each.

Let’s dive into it.

One thing we want to watch out for is this recent relative strength in Consumer Staples. I don't think it's necessarily time to sound the alarm just yet, but continued relative strength out of this group is not consistent with higher stock prices.

Now, a couple of weeks doesn't make a trend. But it is curious to see this one not confirming the new lows that the rest of them are putting in:

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key takeaway: Investor optimism has been unwinding even as indexes have moved into record territory and breadth remains strong (NYSE new high list at its highest level since 2004). This week’s featured chart shows the spread between institutional and individual sentiment collapsing. This has tended to occur ahead of market strength, not weakness. While the risks from a strategic positioning perspective are undiminished (especially in the context of valuations and household equity exposure), the short-term and intermediate-term sentiment picture has improved in recent weeks as optimism has come off the boil. It looks to me like investor sentiment has moved off of the risk side of the scale and the weight of the evidence is turning more constructive not more cautious.

Sentiment Chart of the Week: Sentiment Spread, II less AAII

The current intensity of the advisory services move toward a cautious stance matched with a rise...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

At the beginning of each week, we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

Looking at the past helps put the future into context. In this post, we review the absolute and relative trends at play and preview some of the things we’re watching to profit in the weeks and months ahead.

The market continues to fire on all cylinders right now. Last week's gains were nothing but a continuation of the same resiliency and momentum we've come to expect from risk assets over the last year.

As for what's providing buying opportunities over the next few months and quarters, it is still strongly centered around cyclical areas pertaining to Energy, Financials, International Markets such as Canada...

This is the video recording of the March 2021 Conference Call.

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

One lesson you learn pretty quickly as a market analyst is that not all assets are created equal.

Each and every financial instrument carries its own unique bundle of nuances... from a stocks' beta or systematic volatility as well as its residual risk, to the fee structure and rebalancing methodology of an exchange-traded fund or note, to the settlement and delivery procedures governing futures contracts.

All of these things impact the behavior and performance of these various markets.

Today, we're going to focus specifically on the inner workings of International Country ETFs and the way they are impacted by the currency component inherent in these vehicles.

Let's dive right into it, starting with last week's Mystery Chart reveal.