You notice how investors often like to overstay their welcome?

The people throwing the party give them plenty of opportunities to get out. The music stops playing. The food is already gone. The lights even get turned off.

But some people still choose to stay, almost as if they have no where else to go.

And then they sit around wondering what happened?

"Oh, the DJ going home meant the party was over?"

"What do you mean they're not ordering any more food?"

"Who turned out the lights?"

These are what we call "Bag Holders".

They're an important part of the market cycle, because these are the people who are buying all the shares that the rest of us need to sell, so we can head over down the block to the much better party. The one that's just getting going.

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 bullish picture still lies as a structural backdrop.

But now, we're seeing mixed signals as many areas have become increasingly vulnerable in recent weeks. This is all taking place as defensive assets have found a footing for the first time in over a year, while risk-on assets approach logical levels of supply.

Recent weakness has been particularly isolated in former leadership groups, like Small-Caps and Growth-heavy areas. 

But at the same time, Value and Cyclicals have continued to show resiliency as the Commodity complex suggests risk-taking behavior.

Long story short, things have become more bifurcated than they have done in a while...

Let's jump into our US index table.

...

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. We can then put these near-term developments into the context of the big picture and glean insights into 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.

• Procyclical Commodities led again this week.
  • Copper was up over 6.41% and closed the week at fresh all-time highs.
  • Lumber had another monster week, gaining over 12% but is at an extreme daily momentum reading of 91.
• The biggest loser of the week was the Volatility index falling over 10%
• New highs continue to be the theme across all timeframes, particularly from...

We've been talking about this rotation out of Growth Stocks and into Value Stocks since last year. The trend here has been very strong.

We keep seeing this all over. Check this out for more.

Another chart that stood out this weekend was the number of new 52-week highs on the NYSE, which has much more exposure to value and much less growth.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq, which is almost all Growth, isn't seeing these new highs at all.

No one wants them.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest "Minor Leaguers" report.

We've already had some great trades come out of this Small-Cap focused column since we launched it late last year and started rotating it with our flagship bottoms-up scan, "Under The Hood."

Ultimately, to make the cut for our Minor Leagues list, you must have a market cap between $1 and $2B. There are also price and liquidity filters.

Then, we simply sort by proximity to new highs in order to focus on the best players only.

The idea is to catch the strongest names while they're still small and have serious upside potential. If any of these stocks ever climb up the ranks to the big leagues, just imagine the returns. We're looking at 5-10x moves just to break into large-cap land!

And what better time than now to launch a small-cap-focused column?...

This week we're looking at two long setups in the Pharma sector. With Nifty Pharma breaking out above its resistance of 13,500, a couple of stocks that we've been tracking for quite some time now have also followed through with a breakout.

Let's take a look at these names and track their levels going forward.

Have you noticed how it's the Value sectors that keep shining this year?

It's not Tech. It's not growth.

This isn't 2020.

This is 2021. 

Deal with it.

When was the last time you saw relative strength like this coming from Financials and Materials?

Every month we get a fresh batch of Monthly Candlesticks. It only happens 12 times a year.

I promise you guys from the bottom of my heart that there is no other part of my entire process that provides as much value and information as my monthly chart review. Premium Members can access the Chartbook here.

In the meantime, my friend Josh Brown and I have been doing these short monthly videos since last summer.

On this latest episode we talk about how the market is behaving like it normally does in Year 2 of Bull Market cycles. Choppy, messy, and with a much different profile than the prior year. And, not only is that normal, but anything else would be historically abnormal.

Defensive areas like Consumer Staples, Gold, Bonds and Japanese Yen have been shining. We didn't see that in Year 1. It was the exact opposite.

We like shorting the Nasdaq here and being very picky when looking for Value stocks to buy.

This is always a fun chat.

Hope you enjoy it!

The story of Value stocks continuing to be the leaders is something we absolutely cannot ignore.

But have you noticed? Many investors are ignoring it, particularly in the United States. "I'm a Growth Investor", is what they tell me lol. What even is that?

You can really see this rotation taking place in the ratio between the Nasdaq100 and the NYSE Composite:

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 longer-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 5-9 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 & 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 Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley.

We held our May Monthly Strategy Session Monday night which Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

For these calls, we really take a step back and put things in the context of their structural trends by focusing only on Monthly charts. This is easily one of our most valuable exercises.

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

Anybody who has been tracking the market closely has noticed that the one sector which has been displaying the most strength off late is Metals. The sector-specific stocks have generated handsome returns in a short span of time and don't seem to be slowing down as well.

So for those who missed this rally, or those who are already invested, what are the levels to track going forward? We've got you covered.

Here is a comprehensive list of the best stocks from the sector. Some of these are actionable and some are price targets to track.