Ari Wald is always one of my favorite Technical Analysts. Him and I were trained around the same time so we look at the market in a very similar way. Today Ari is the Head of Technical Analysis at Oppenheimer in New York and we're very lucky to have him on the podcast. If you're interested in learning more about Ari, go back and listen to his guest appearance in Season 1 (EP 2). In this episode, Ari and I discuss the current state of the US Stock Market. Included in the analysis are breadth measurements, important levels, smoothing mechanisms and sector rotation. Him and I can talk forever about this stuff so the time felt like it flew by. We covered a ton of material in a very short period of time. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!
We're below former resistance levels in all of the major US Indexes. While structurally, longer-term uptrends are still intact, there is short-term risk of price volatility and/or opportunity cost. This is where establishing your time horizon is important. We laid out important levels from an intermediate-term horizon earlier this week. I think we're in for more of a sideways mess than anything else for now.
Historic breakouts are rarely clean. Go back and look at the early 80s. If we are to resolve this 18-month range in US Indexes higher, with European Stocks also breaking out, I'd argue it's a historic market event. If that happens, a bumpy start would not be anything we haven't seen before at other important points in the past.
With that in mind, let's take today to focus on where we stand in momentum.
I've been a fan of Tony Dwyer's work for a long time. Those of you who know me see me approach the market from a top/down global macro and intermarket perspective. Tony starts his process in a similar way at Cannacord Genuity and Dwyerstrategy.com. When we're talking about the next direction for stocks, we both focus on other assets like credit to help identify big trends. We look at the behavior of commodity and currency markets to make decisions in equities. I thought this was a really fun conversation. I particularly enjoyed Tony's comparisons to 1995 and what was going on then with respect to the President's public issues, interest rates, precious metals and the US Dollar. This podcast could have gone on forever if we let it, but we kept it short and concise so we could get to the point quickly.
Wednesday morning I outlined the charts we were watching ahead of the Fed Decision and what we would need to see before getting out of the way and reevaluating our bullish Equities and US Interest Rates thesis.
Today I want to look at those same charts and note what's changed and how we're moving forward.
We've wanted to be erring on the long side of stocks if the major Indexes are above their 2018 highs. That has been the strategy for the second half of 2019. But what if we're not above those highs? Then what?
Tuesday's Mystery Chart received a lot of responses, with most of you were erring on the long side.
Now, let's look at the chart and its related theme.
Here's SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. attempting to break out above its post-IPO base while the more traditional "banking stocks" are being hit hard. Sure the price action is a bit choppy, but it's not going down like many other stocks in the sector and market.
Click on chart to enlarge view.
The reason this chart stood out to us is that the relative strength is obvious and suggests that these stocks will lead to the upside once the market gains its footing. As long as prices are above their recent lows of 732, the bias is to the upside towards 952.
This is the question I often ask myself. In which direction is there the most risk? Are we better off looking for stocks to buy or looking for stocks to sell? There is no need to make this complicated. Where are the probabilities of success skewed in our favor?
You're well aware by now that I spend a lot of time looking through charts in the U.S. and around the world. We have Indexes, Sectors, Stocks and other assets throughout My Chartbook. One thing I learned a long time ago is to also pay attention to the bellwethers. It's a word that gets thrown around a lot, but we take it a little more seriously around here. There are only a few of them and today I want to draw your attention specifically to what is happening in shares of J.P. Morgan.