Are you guys noticing how the new 52-week high list keeps getting longer, and not shorter?
I can't emphasize enough how the lies about weak market breadth have been just that: Lies, or myths, or whatever words you need to use that won't offend people. I stopped caring about that sort of thing a long time ago and just tell it like it is (someone has to). I'm just not seeing the weak breadth scenario playing out like they keep telling me. It's actually been quite the opposite. We've been seeing expansion in participation for months. So this is really nothing new.
The Value Line Index has been a helpful barometer of US Stock Market strength in the past, and today is no different.
Neil Blalock is my guest this week on the podcast. I believe he is absolutely the perfect compliment to all of the other guests we've had on over the years. While many technical analysis, especially on this podcast, come from an equities background, Neil was raised in Missouri and brought up with commodities all around him. It wasn't until much later in his career that he focused more on the stock market. Because Technical Analysis can be applied to asset classes of all kinds, Neil is able to use his expertise across markets. What's funny is that you can take Neil out of the farm, but you can't take the farm away from him completely. When I asked him about what interests him out there, he went right for the Soybean Markets! Neil just can't help himself and it's a beauty to watch. In this episode we dive into the agriculture commodities market as well as the softs, precious metals and ultimately into the equities and interest rate markets. This was a really fun conversation with a different perspective than what you might be used to!
People don't like it when I tell them the Dow is going to 30,000. They tend to get even more worked up when I tell them it's going to 40,000 after that.
I'm old enough to remember a time when stocks going up was a good thing. In my opinion, there is still a massive amount of underexposure in the equities market.
So when I get asked, "Well JC, what's going to take stocks to those levels?". I think it's pretty clear that it's Technology:
Since late August when interest rates around the globe began their counter-trend rally we've begun to see some outperformance from international equities...leading to headlines like this.
So, is the trend in international underperformance finally over?
In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I talk about why we want to keep selling gold and buy stocks instead. This trade is working and we don't want to fight it. This has been our base case for months, as you can see here. One of the things that we want to incorporate into our study of price is the positioning of Commercial Hedgers and Speculators, which is published weekly by the CFTC in the Commitment of Traders Report.
In this video I explain how we use this data, why we care, and when to pay attention!
Tuesday's Mystery Chart had a lot of people talking and guessing (incorrectly, as usual), so thank you all for your feedback and participation.
Overall the feedback was the chart was a longer-term buy, but people had concerns about how far it's run in the near-term.
With that as our backdrop, let's get into it.
Here's the US Healthcare Providers (IHF) which is emerging from a consolidation via a sharp rally as momentum gets overbought.
Overall this looks like the start of the subsector's next major move to the upside, but we'll get more information about its sustainability from seeing how prices digest their more than 20% gains since early October. Bulls want to see that correction occur through time, rather than...
This week's Chart of The Week outlined a compelling case for the Pharmaceutical sector to bottom at current levels, so this post is going to outline the stocks we want to be buying to capitalize on this potential inflection point.
Let's take a step back and talk about what a huge waste of money I think it is to own gold. It's not just that I don't think it goes up in value, it's more about what else we could be doing with that money. It's the opportunity cost here that I believe burns the hole in your pocket. Will our money be treated better in rocks or in stocks? I still think it's in stocks.
In early October, I put out a note reiterating why we wanted to be selling gold. This is after over a year of a bullish approach towards the yellow metal. So to be clear, I am not a gold bug or a gold hater. The truth is that I couldn't care less whether gold doubles in price or gets cut in half. It's not my problem. For me, Gold is just another asset in a humongous world of many assets. If you think it's anything more than that, I believe you've already lost.
As a reminder, a big reason why we were so bullish of Gold throughout the 4th quarter last year and beyond was because Commercial Hedgers had on their largest net long position in history. Commercial hedgers in...