From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

It’s time to turn our attention to the energy space.

The same market conditions that favored energy in Q3 of last year are brewing. 

Interest rates are rising. King Dollar is refusing to step aside.

And energy contracts – especially crude oil – are entering a historically strong period of the year.

Check out crude oil’s seasonality since 1984: 

February kicks off the strongest four-month period of the year.

Meanwhile, energy contracts are forming potential bullish reversals.

Perhaps last month’s crude oil breakout has been sloppy. But buyers reclaimed our risk level yesterday – right around when crude tends to bottom. 

Here’s crude’s seasonality for the next two months...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Whenever a fellow parent asks what I do, I tell them I comment on interest rates.

I’m not involved in the semiconductor industry or the AI revolution. I don’t rob community banks (a personal favorite, despite mixed reactions). And I certainly do not analyze fixed-income, forex, and commodity markets (that’s a show-stopper).

The only thing people want to know these days – whether they’re navigating Wall St. or Main St. – is where rates are headed. 

But no one seems to be listening to the one person who has a direct impact on the direction of US Treasury yields…

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 new highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that exhibit 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.

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

Welcome to the Short Report.

We publish this...

Market breadth can be a funny thing.

People think it's easy. People think they can just pull up some indicator and it's always going to tell them whether market breadth is good or bad.

But that's not how it works. Some indicators are more valuable in certain environments than others.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

King Dollar reigns supreme, and its near-term rally shows no sign of slowing.

What can you do about it? 

You can profit from it.

Today, I’ll share with you three tactical setups for dollar strength. And they’re all close to triggering.

But, before I outline the trades, let’s look at the relationship between the dollar and stocks…

Last night, Alfonso dropped a stellar chart in Slack of the US Dollar Index $DXY overlaid with Consumer Staples $XLP relative to the S&P 500 $SPY:

The chart supports the inverse relationship between stocks and the US dollar that’s been in place for almost a decade.

Money flows out of the major stock indexes and into staples when investors are scared.

The same is true for the US dollar. That’s why these two charts look alike.

Interestingly, staples fell on a relative basis as the US Dollar Index chopped...

Another day goes by in the market, and more selling came in.

Investors are making a habit of this whole selling thing.

You notice?

In yesterday's trading we saw the fewest amount of stocks in longer-term uptrends since mid-December. We also had the fewest stocks in short-term uptrends since mid-November.

You may not see the selling pressure as much at the index level, but for those of you who actually take the time to count what the stocks themselves are doing, you know.

Take a look at the new highs list, essentially non-existent throughout the month of January, even with the S&P500 and Dow hitting the highest levels ever.

You can also see the divergences in Consumer stocks, Small-caps and Emerging Markets currencies:

This is the video recording of our February 5th Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended February 2, 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

If silver doesn’t come to play, precious metals won’t win the day.

Gold’s resilience has been impressive lately, especially as its two main headwinds – the US dollar and real yields – catch higher. 

But while all eyes are following gold as it coils just below all-time highs, I’m tracking silver. Because gold’s doggedness is all for naught if silver breaks down.

Analyzing Unusual Options Activity | The Flow Show https://t.co/XsSONHUcYV

— Sean McLaughlin, NLD 📈 ( formerly @chicagosean) (@OptionsSean) February 5, 2024

Today on The Flow Show, me and Steve Strazza chatted about the current $VIX environment, the potential for sideways, volatile trading action, and our internally diverging views on the overall market (JC is getting more bearish, Strazza is still flying the Bull Flag, and I'm closer to Switzerland).

As we dug into it, Strazza floated a couple ideas in the Healthcare space that made sense to me once we fleshed it out.

The market wasted no time starting to sell off in the month of February.

Remember, this is historically one of the worst months of the year to own stocks.

Also, the best 3 month period of the year (Nov-Jan) just came to an end.

So if stocks weren't selling off, that would be weird.

Stocks move first, and then the indexes follow.

It's a market of stocks, remember?

And while the S&P500 may have just had its 4th consecutive weekly gain of at least 1%, the stocks themselves are NOT doing that.