The NYSE new 52-week high list peaked on December 14th. That puts us almost a month into some kind of correction underneath the surface.

And this sort of behavior is fine in bull markets. Go back and look over the past 100 years. It's actually perfectly normal.

Last week we discussed what a bigger correction might look like, and what the market would have to do to hold on to its ongoing uptrend.

Let's remember, the Dow Jones Industrial Avg rallied 5000 points in 2 months. Give it a break.

See: New Year & New Trends

Among the most important groups of stocks comes Financials, of course.

Here is arguably the most important component in the U.S. Financials Index going out at new all-time highs...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended January 5, 2024. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

A risk-off tone is blanketing the precious metal space as a key data point suggests more pain ahead…

Silver is underperforming gold.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Timothy C. Wentworth, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance $WBA..

Wentworth reported a purchase of 10,000 WBA shares, equivalent to $242,220.

Sorry if today's blog title is a dated, obscure movie reference. I can't help myself sometimes.

But today's setup is no joke. We've got a stock that's a little off the mainstream path, which makes me like it even more. Stocks like this, which few have heard of, can sometimes quietly move higher. And then this slowly draws more attention (and buyers) to it, which helps our position.

So let's get to it.

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. New Position in SMH.
2. No adjustments today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

A risk-off tone is blanketing the precious metal space as a key data point suggests more pain ahead…

Silver is underperforming gold.

Check out silver undercutting a shelf of former lows relative to gold:

The breakdown signals a lack of interest or risk-seeking behavior in the higher-beta vehicle.

When silver fails to catch a relative bid, the entire precious metals space tends to follow. 

Last month’s breakout in the Silver Miners ETF $SIL is failing to hold:

It’s simple: We can’t carry a long SIL position if it trades below 28.

These stocks will eventually resolve higher. But sellers have the upper hand for now.

The Gold Miners ETF $GDX is also sliding:

The 30 level remains our line in the sand. I don’t want anything to do with GDX below that level. 

It’s hard to imagine gold futures decisively breaking to new all-time highs while GDX trades below its former 2016 high.  

The same analysis applies to the MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF $RING:

The next secular bull run for gold mining stocks remains on hold...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Broadwood Partners LP.

The investment firm reported a purchase of roughly $6.4 million in STAAR Surgical Company $STAA.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Broadwood Partners LP.

The investment firm reported a purchase of roughly $6.4 million in STAAR Surgical Company $STAA.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What goes up must come down.

It’s an old commodity market maxim that never fails to deliver. The cattle, sugar, and OJ markets embodied this truth last year. 

But as the calendar flips to 2024, it’s time to track those markets that failed to launch in 2023.

Here are three of my favorites…

Coffee

Unlike other softs such as cocoa and sugar, coffee failed to produce monster gains last year. 

But it’s now attempting to carve out a multi-year double bottom:

Notice the resistance level at approximately 197 coincides with a key retracement level and a shelf of former lows. That’s our breakout level.

Also, note that the 168 level proved an excellent area to define our risk and get long well before our current line in the sand. A similar early...

I'm showing my age here, but I've never used the social media platform Snapchat. Nor do I have any plans to do so.

But I'll happily trade options in the stock when there are favorable setups. And we have one now.

Let's get right to it.

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. New Position in XLU.
2. No adjustments today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The only transaction on today’s list comes in a 13G filed  by Point72 Asset Management.

The hedge fund revealed an initial stake of 5.40% in C4 Therapeutics Inc $CCCC.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What goes up must come down.

It’s an old commodity market maxim that never fails to deliver. The cattle, sugar, and OJ markets embodied this truth last year. 

But as the calendar flips to 2024, it’s time to track those markets that failed to launch in 2023.

Here are three of my favorites…

Coffee

Unlike other softs such as cocoa and sugar, coffee failed to produce monster gains last year. 

But it’s now attempting to carve out a multi-year double bottom:

Notice the resistance level at approximately 197 coincides with a key retracement level and a shelf of former lows. That’s our breakout level.

Also, note that the 168 level proved an excellent area to define our risk and get long well before our current line in the sand. A similar early-entry opportunity is taking shape in the cotton market. 

But first, a daily chart of March coffee:

I like buying coffee futures on a decisive close...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

US treasuries finished 2023 with a bang, hitting our initial targets before Christmas.

But the long-bond trade is losing its luster.

Resistance is now coming into play as the bond market catches its breath…

Check out the US Treasury Bond ETF $TLT with a 200-day simple moving average:

I’m not a big fan of moving averages. I don’t like how they distract from price and create extra noise on the charts.

Regardless, many market participants track the long-term moving average. Bond bulls are shouting their battle cries as TLT peaks its head back above the 200-day mark.  

So, is it time to get long bonds?

No!   

The 200-day moving average is still sloping downward when we take a step back with a weekly chart:

US T-bonds remain in a structural downtrend. Plus,...