The coal industry is one of the most under-the-radar ponds to fish in.
Investors write it off because "clean energy" will displace the industry. While this is likely true, we think it will take far longer than most expect.
In the meantime, this extreme mispositioning is our opportunity to profit.
You would have made a fortune if you bought these stocks at the depths of the COVID crash. Far more than if you purchased the hottest "work from home" stock.
These stocks had their best day in years last summer after a major Australian coal mine caught fire and halted production.
While we haven't seen the upside follow-through we anticipated, the setup looks ripe for the bulls to take control.
Let's dive into the charts.
Our Coal Index is testing a key level of interest:
Our Coal Index rallied from 5 to 40 from 2020 to 2022, making it the best industry group during the post-COVID bull market.
Since then, it has churned sideways in a well-deserved digestion of gains.
Crude oil is setting up for a big move, and almost nobody is paying attention. In fact, sentiment in the energy trade couldn’t be more bearish right now. Everyone hates it, everyone.
As Strazza said on our call yesterday, “Even Warren Buffett is losing money on this one.” That’s the vibe.
XLE keeps dropping, the bearish sentiment intensifies, yet producers are stepping in and buying. That’s a bullish signal if I’ve ever seen one.
There are plenty of reasons to start liking energy here, especially when headlines like these are flying under the radar of most U.S. investors.
Sure, this crisis might trigger a short term pop, but I’m not in it for a flash move, I’m looking for a trend.
And the pieces for a sustainable breakout are falling into place.
Let’s talk about seasonality. Most people think energy’s best season is summer. Makes sense, right? But the data tells a different story. Energy peaks in the summer, then drifts into bearish seasonals, until now.
President-elect Donald Trump rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange this week, and it was reminiscent of the times when Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush went to the NYSE years ago.
The infamous Reagan quote, "We're going to turn the bull loose," immediately came to mind.
Considering that, it seems appropriate to talk about bulls today because of their positive correlation to economic growth.
Live cattle futures and bond yields have danced together for decades:
As you can see, cattle futures and bond yields are structurally similar but sometimes diverge from one another. In the lower pane, we've included the 200-day rolling correlation to highlight the past (and current) divergences in price.
The biggest problem with correlation analysis is that it doesn't tell us which direction the lines will likely go next.
However, the primary trends have been higher since the 2020 low, and the odds favor that the primary uptrends will eventually reassert themselves.
And we think that's currently underway, with live cattle futures closing this week at the highest price in history.
The New York Stock Exchange held its annual Tree Lighting Event this week. It was spectacular, as always.
But we're not here to talk about pine trees or LED lights. We're here to talk about commodities.
The NYSE has an array of vehicles to trade, most being equities.
They also have several commodity funds, which happen to offer asymmetric risk versus reward opportunities at current levels. Let's talk about them.
Our first setup is the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund $DBA:
The top five holdings are cocoa (14.8%), coffee (13%), live cattle (11.9%), sugar (11.6%), and corn (11.4%), several of which we've recently discussed.
My cousin wasn't asking me about crypto during this year's Thanksgiving feast.
Instead, he wanted to know which commodity to buy after the historic cocoa trade.
Without hesitation, I told him, "coffee."
And I really believe that!
Let's talk about why.
Our Soft Commodity Index is testing a critical level of interest:
The index peaked and rolled over in 2011 and has carved out a massive basing pattern in the years since then. If and when the bulls resolve this pattern, we want to be long.
On a relative basis, soft commodities are printing fresh 52-week highs versus the broader commodity complex. This is precisely what we're looking for in a leadership group, and we expect this outperformance to continue for the foreseeable future.
Cocoa futures recently resolved a 45-year base and put the bears in a dirt nap, and we think coffee futures are up next:
As you can see, coffee is at its highest level since it peaked in 1977, following a face-ripping 600% rally in two years.
A close above 340 would mark the end of a nearly 50-year consolidation and the beginning of a new uptrend.
Last week, we identified a bullish momentum divergence in the commodities versus stocks ratio at a shelf of former lows.
The evidence suggests we're on the verge of a new era of commodity outperformance.
If we're right, it's time to prepare a list of our favorite setups to seize this opportunity.
We've already covered promising setups in uranium and solar.
Now, let's focus on oil and gas, and here's why:
First, crude oil, heating oil, and gasoline have been consolidating above a shelf of former highs for more than two years, and the risk is skewed in favor of the bulls.
Until the bears can resolve these consolidations to the downside, we want to continue betting these levels hold as support.