From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

Industrials Are Island Hopping

his is a zoomed-in look at the trailing month and a half of price action in the Sector SPDR Industrials ETF XLI. Industrials have the tightest historic correlation to the major averages in the US, so the index provides valuable information for the overall equity market. 

Industrials just printed a failed reversal pattern, making for an excellent illustration of the choppy and trendless environment we’re in.

Earlier in the month, XLI launched higher from an island reversal formation. However, there was no follow through and the move immediately stalled. Friday, prices gapped right back into their old range, forming yet another island reversal. 

We’re watching the pivot lows around 82.75. If we take those out, we’re likely to get a fresh leg to the downside. This is not just true for Industrials, but the broader market.

...

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. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding 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.

Macro Universe:

• This week, our macro universe was positive, with 70% of our list closing higher with a median return of 1.46%.
• Oil $CL was the winner, closing with a 16.54% gain.
• The biggest loser was Dow Jones Utilities $DJU, with a weekly loss of -2.82%.
• There was no change in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 6%.
• Only 11% of our macro list made fresh 4-week highs.
• ...

The most significant insider activity on today’s list is a 13G filed by Baker Bros Advisors LP.

The hedge fund revealed an increase in ownership from 7.7% to 10.9% in the small-cap biotechnology company Rhythm Pharmaceuticals $RYTM.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. You can click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month. ...

It’s another short one today.

However, we do have some founder activity in the recreational vehicle manufacturer Thor Industries $THO.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

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

Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month.

By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends. This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.

With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.

Now that there’s some clarity around the Twitter $TWTR/Elon Musk deal, the focus is shifting to how exactly it will get done.

Today’s reports claim that Apollo, Sixth Street, and others have ended conversations with Musk’s team to provide debt financing.

As it turns out, $44 billion is a lot of money, even for the richest man in the world…

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as The Hall of Famers, The  Minor Leaguers, and The 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to The Short Report.

This is the video recording of our October 5, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

Elon Musk and Twitter $TWTR are back in business!

In a letter filed with the SEC on Tuesday, the eccentric billionaire offered to close the originally agreed upon deal worth $44 billion.

The most significant insider activity on today’s list was reported in a series of Form 4 filings by Greg Abel, the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.

Abel reported purchases worth roughly $68 million in Berkshire’s class A shares.

The transactions help to align the executive more closely with shareholders as he prepares to take the reins of the company at some point in the future.