Yes, these crosses have been trending lower since the beginning of the year. But with the critical levels that broke yesterday, we're anticipating fresh downside legs and prolonged dollar dominance.
Let’s take a look.
Here’s a chart of the EUR/USD:
On Tuesday, the euro decisively broke down to its lowest level in almost two decades.
Energy has been the clear leader in 2022. The sector posted a record-setting start to the year, even as the broader market sold off.
Whether it's our Inside Scoop universe or any other scan, we’ve gotten used to leaning on the strongest stocks in the oil field for long exposure.
As participation narrowed for US stocks throughout the second quarter, we cautioned that energy had become an easy target and was vulnerable to catching lower with the broader market.
About a month ago, that happened as bears finally came for energy. In a matter of weeks, much of this year’s progress came undone, and so did a handful of our stops.
While there has certainly been short-term technical damage, the primary trends are intact. And while these stocks have been hit hard over the trailing month, there's little evidence that they're done being leaders over longer time frames.
Once this corrective action passes, we expect energy stocks to resume higher and offer plenty of bullish opportunities. But in the meantime, they are susceptible to deeper drawdowns and increased selling pressure.
As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!
One way we're doing this is by identifying the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).
Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.
But the scan doesn't just end there.
We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.
Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during...
A new quarter brings new positioning for our strategic portfolio, tilting away from equities, taking a fresh look at bonds and trimming up our commodity exposure. Recent strength in bonds has adjusting our fixed income exposure in the cyclical and yield portfolios and adding it to the tactical portfolio. While comfortable limiting our risk exposure for now, we also want to lean toward where the evidence suggests the market is heading.
Key Takeaway: Flow data showing equities attracting 71 cents of every ETF dollar in the first half of 2022 casts some doubt on claims that sentiment is washed out even as bears continue to outnumber bulls. New lows > new highs and excessive pessimism are features of bear markets, while new highs > new lows and building optimism tend to be seen in bull markets. The wall of worry seen in the AAII sentiment data off of the COVID lows is more an exception than it is a rule, especially in the absence of breadth thrusts or other evidence of strong participation. Between the ETF flow data and measures of household asset allocations, the risk is that the investor love affair with equities grows cold and they seek solace elsewhere. Overall the sentiment data now looks more similar to what was seen in Q1 2008 than what was seen at the lows a year later.
Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Equities Feel The Flow
Discussions of sentiment often focus only on what investors say...
On both an absolute and a relative basis, healthcare names continue to perform. I guess the need for quality healthcare is a stronger driver of stock prices than interest rates and global macro? At least for now, that appears to be the case.
One name we've been watching, Cigna $CI, is knocking on the door of a major base breakout.
The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.
The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.
We debuted a new scan recently which goes by the name- All Star Momentum.
All Star Momentum is a brand new scan that guides us towards the very best stocks in the market. We have incorporated our stock universe of Nifty 500 as the base this time around. Among the 500 stocks that we follow, this scan will pump out names that are most likely to outperform the market.
Technical analysis in its very nature is simply following reality. We're not tied to position, a narrative, or whatever story journalists are spinning up. We're never dogmatic in our approach and are always open to changing our approach as new data comes in.
We've been discussing a lot internally with all the analysts the lack of actionable crypto trade ideas we've published. Don't get us wrong, we love trades. But equally, we need to be aware and mindful of when the very act of trading itself is detrimental to our portfolios.
There's no such thing as catching every move. I see this a lot in the crypto community, where traders often feel like they need to predict every rally.
There isn't some random giga chad or MM slinging every move. It just doesn't exist. If anything, the blowups we're seeing all across the place among the most sophisticated crypto funds (3AC et al.) are a testament to this.
The first half of 2022 was one for the record books, but it was more dubious than distinguished. Only two years (2020 & 2009) in the past quarter century experienced more 1% moves in the first half than did 2022 and only one (2008) finished the year with a higher percentage of 1% moves than we have experienced in the first half of this year. Both stocks and bonds were down in back-to-back quarters for only the third time in the past 45 years. This contributed to the benchmark 60/40 stock/bond portfolio experiencing a first half of the year that was twice as bad as another in the past quarter century. According to data from Ned Davis Research, it was the worst first half for a balanced portfolio since the 1930’s.
There are plenty of observations about how the worst first halves are followed by strength in...