The market rallied almost 20% in just three days after making new lows last Monday. Stocks recently sold off in record fashion so it's no surprise to see them bounce with the same ferocity. But with the VIX still elevated above 50, we're not out of the woods yet and should expect the swift moves in each direction to continue for now.
Some say we're in a new bull market, but the charts tell us we're actually at a logical level for what appears to be no more than a bear market rally to stop and reverse.
If you're one of these people who thinks the lows for stocks are in, which sectors would you expect to be leading the way higher? The big important groups that fell the hardest, and therefore should bounce the most? Probably.
Well, what if I told you that it's been the opposite.
The leaders off the lows are Utilities, Consumer Staples, Healthcare and REITs:
This week's Mystery Chart exercise gives us a nice glimpse into the current sentiment amid the recent volatility, so thanks to all those who responded. The overwhelming majority of you we're either selling or doing nothing, which comes as little surprise.
Many of you wanted to sell this chart aggressively and even cited the current market environment as part of you're reasoning. But! The chart was inverted... so all those who were pounding the table to short it were actually buying the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) relative to the Russell 3000 (IWV).
I'm curious to see how, if at all, this changes your perspective on the chart. Tweet me @sstrazza with your thoughts!
In a post earlier this month, we scanned the S&P 500 for the strongest uptrends so that we'd be prepared to buy stocks when the market stabilized. Well three weeks and an additional 25% drawdown later, and we're going to do a similar exercise.
The last two days' rally in stocks confirmed bullish breadth divergences which suggest a tradeable bottom is near and put the S&P 500 back above its 2018 lows around 2350, giving us a well-defined level to manage risk against. If prices fail to hold this level, all bets are off, but as long as we're above it, we think the bias is to the upside over the coming weeks to months. As such, we're looking for long opportunities that offer asymmetric risk/reward setups in the strongest stocks, three of which we outline below.
We are constantly analyzing market breadth. We do this not just for insight into the strength of the current trend but also because it helps us identify key turning points. We outlined a variety of deteriorating breadth measures in a post last month to support our bearish outlook on stocks, and the signal turned out to be quite timely as the market collapsed soon after.
With the market now severely oversold amid one of the swiftest bear markets in history, we're looking to breadth measures once again for signs of a tradeable low.
This week we've outlined what we need to see from breadth, the Nifty 50 & Bank Index, and Copper in order to get long Indian stocks from any sort of intermediate or long-term perspective.
Although we've not seen those developments yet, US Stocks (S&P 500) is back above its December lows and other foreign indexes have started to catch a bid in the near-term. This subtle improvement is suggesting some trade opportunities could develop on the long side for those who hold positions for a few days to a week or two.
As we look for signs of a tradeable low in Equities, we're not only looking at breadth and the stock market's leaders, we're also looking to the Commodity market for a signal of what's to come.
Let's get into why Copper needs to be on your radar.
As we look for signs of a tradeable low in Equities, we're not only looking at breadth and the stock market's leaders, we're also looking to the Commodity market for a signal of what's to come.
Let's get into why Copper needs to be on your radar.