From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

"Sell the two… Utah! Sell the two!"

I’ve parroted my bond outlook during internal meetings and across our Slack channels in recent weeks, partly in jest but mostly to highlight the underlying uptrend in rates. 

Honestly, I’m not crazy about selling the short end of the curve, though I believe there’s a trade there.

Instead, there are far better opportunities with longer-duration bonds.

Shorting bonds isn’t the most popular play with the Fed and the dollar and the CPI… 

But that makes me like this trade even more, especially when I put the headlines and the dominant narrative aside and simply focus on the charts…

Check out the 10-year yield $TNX:

The US benchmark rate remains within a well-defined uptrend, resolving higher from one bullish continuation pattern after another. And it’s showing no signs of a trend reversal.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

This market is on a tear and making new highs.

$SPX hit 4,500, a new milestone.

We're extended, but we can stay this way for a while.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

Today’s Hot Corner list is a short one.

KGH Ltd filed a 13G for Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc $DO revealing an increase in its ownership stake from 7.15% to 7.50%.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We have PPI coming out this morning at 8:30 a.m. ET and a few Fed speakers on the schedule as well.

It looks like $SPY will probably touch 450.

Today, like yesterday, I'll probably be looking for counter-trend trade shorts. It's harder at this point to find longs.

[10/5: updated stop to 8.50]

I’m traveling throughout Southeast Asia — to eight different countries — with my All Star Charts analyst Steve Strazza, giving presentations at local Chartered Market Technicians (CMT) Association events, meeting local traders, enjoying native cuisines, and just marveling about the similarities we traders from different corners of the world all share.

So for the rest of the month of July, I’m going to cut the preamble and get right to the action for you guys.

As such, here’s the setup for the trade I’ll be putting on today:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

CPI data for June came out this morning, and the market liked the news.

The indices are flying high.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

The US Dollar Index $DXY has resumed its march toward fresh lows.

It took a less direct route, meandering sideways for the past seven months.

Nevertheless, our roadmap for a DXY breakdown has remained useful.

The EUR/USD is trading above 1.08. And commodity currencies are recapturing their July pivot lows from last summer. 

These are key developments that support further USD weakness, leading us toward today’s breakdown.  

Thanks to sellers taking control of the market, today’s session is offering another critical piece of confirming evidence…

An oversold reading on the 14-day RSI.

Notice DXY never registered an RSI print below 30, even during the strong selloff last fall.

Wednesday’s oversold reading marks a significant shift in momentum....

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street.

These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats.

In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money."

Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

By adding our...

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 all-time highs, such as The Hall of Famers, The Minor Leaguers, and The 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting 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.

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

Welcome to the Short Report.

...

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We have CPI data for June coming out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

I'll hold off on sharing stock ideas this morning until we have clarity on those numbers.

While many investors have been focused on arbitrary lagging indicators like the economy, we rather keep our attention on reality.

We're grown adults. We don't need bedtime stories to go to sleep at night. So fairytales about recessions, or inflations, or bidens are just not anything we're interested in.

We get paid to sell things at higher prices than where we buy them.

And the bet we've been making for a long time is that the negative correlation between the US Dollar and stocks will remain in place.

That bet has paid off handsomely for us and anyone listening.

So as investors we all have a choice. Do we bet that the correlation is all of a sudden going to change tomorrow? Or do we bet that things just remain the same?

...

The two major catalysts that will propel gold to new all-time highs are veering in different directions. 

US real yields are challenging fresh decade highs (not ideal for a gold rally) while the dollar is pressing against its year-to-date lows.

A breakdown in the US dollar index $DXY would no doubt send gold bugs dancing in the streets everywhere around the world.

I believe a weaker dollar remains critical to the next secular uptrend in Gold. But do real yields need to roll over as well? 

I’m leaning toward no. Here’s why…

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The market overall was up and away today.

We have CPI data for June coming out at 8:30 a.m. ET and more Fed speakers on the schedule for tomorrow.

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

The two major catalysts that will propel gold to new all-time highs are veering in different directions. 

US real yields are challenging fresh decade highs (not ideal for a gold rally) while the dollar is pressing against its year-to-date lows.

A breakdown in the US dollar index $DXY would no doubt send gold bugs dancing in the streets everywhere around the world.

I believe a weaker dollar remains critical to the next secular uptrend in Gold. But do real yields need to roll over as well? 

I’m leaning toward no. Here’s why…

First, a quick reminder as to why real yields represent a potential headwind for Gold: 

An inverted chart of the US 10y real rate looks almost identical to a chart of gold futures, as the inverse relationship between these two has been strong over the past 15 years.

So it stands to reason that rising rates would hinder any meaningful rally in Gold. 

And so far, they have. Gold has gone nowhere (down roughly 10%) as the 10y real yield has risen almost 300bps since March 2022. That’s not much of a decline considering the explosive increase in the real yield....