Energy stocks were some of the biggest losers of coronavirus. Not only did petroleum demand fall off a cliff in March and April. They’ve also faced a big institutional shift toward ESG investing (electric vehicles and solar energy).
But few things last forever in the stock market. The fundamental backdrop for energy has improved as travel and the economy...
Spotify has come into its own as a new-media disruptor in recent months. It broke out to new highs in May after signing Joe Rogan. Other luminaries like Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama have followed.
SPOT muscled up to $299.67 on July 22 but then pulled back. Its last earnings report wasn’t terrific, but the real story on this name is its widening program list...
Cloud computing has been one of the strongest growth trends in the market this year, and now one of the most important names has pulled back to some interesting levels.
Salesforce.com has followed an upward-sloping trend line since early June, making successively higher highs and higher lows. The two most recent peaks were all-time highs above its pre-crash...
Investors are rotating back to “reopening” sectors like airlines, financials and energy. This runs against the dominant theme for most of the coronavirus period, which focused on stay-at-home stocks.
Netflix is obviously one of the biggest examples of that “Covid trade.” Not surprisingly, it’s lagged recently as other parts of the market have taken off.
The...
As most people know, sentiment has been running uber-bearish. That’s lifted gold and depressed interest rates. But now the action in bond prices may be showing an end to the move.
The iShares 20+ year Treasury Bond ETF tracks the prices of long-dated bonds. And they may have recently hit a peak around $172, near the same level where it was rejected in...
As anticipated last week, sentiment has pivoted sharply toward cyclical reopening stocks like small caps and industrials. Meanwhile the Nasdaq has struggled.
Now one of the most iconic industrial stocks of all has some potentially bullish reversal patterns: General Electric.
GE has lost more than three-quarters of its value since the end of 2016. Its troubles...
Precious metals have flown higher over the last month as the market woke up to the Federal Reserve’s uber-dovish policies and this country’s lag in the fight against coronavirus.
However the U.S. economic data has shown some signs of improvement and now gold is showing a potential reversal pattern.
XAUUSD touched a new all-time high of $2,075.28 today. It then...
Financials have been one of the weakest corners of the market lately, thanks to credit worries and falling interest rates.
Of all the big names, Morgan Stanley has held up the best. It’s down less than 3 percent on the year, compared with drops of more than 20 percent for other key stocks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.
MS has performed better...
Growth stocks and the Nasdaq have outperformed for most of the market’s recovery over the last four months. This is consistent with the disciplined approach of sticking with winners and trying to avoid value traps.
However, there have been two periods that small caps showed relative strength: late April-early June and late May-early June. (See Smart RS on chart...
Etheruem had a sharp pullback over the weekend, but a look at the chart shows little technical damage was done. The bullish trend appears to remain intact less than a day before the much-awaited Medalla testnet begins.
Today we’ll look at the monthly and hourly charts.
First, the monthly shows an important price area between $358.40 (low of April 2018) and...
The S&P 500 has had its biggest trailing four-month gain since 2009, but a new month is about to start. It might be a time to be aware of some potentially bearish chart patterns.
First is the bearish gap from February 24. The index tested into it last week but stalled. This is also close to the year-to-date breakeven line of 3231.
Next, the index had a bearish...
Biotechnology has been one of the stronger sectors this year. It’s benefited from the combination of Covid treatment hopes (vaccines + therapeutics), and the macro backdrop (low rates/negative GDP).
As we highlighted earlier in the month, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology Index ETF broke out to new highs in late June and has been holding its ground above those...
The SPDR Health Care ETF broke above its pre-Covid highs on July 17. Now it’s pulled back and is bouncing at those old levels. Is a stealth breakout taking place?
XLV has also formed a bullish ascending triangle, which it’s broken to the upside.
Health care is interesting because it lost more than 1 million workers amid the coronavirus lockdowns (according to...
The last week has been huge for cryptocurrencies. We learned that testing for Ethereum 2.0 may begin as early as Aug. 4. The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also decided that U.S. banks can hold cryptos on behalf of customers. MasterCard and Visa both had took incremental steps toward the space as well.
Price action has been following the news. ...
Housing stocks have emerged as a beneficiary of the coronavirus economy. The U.S. entered the crisis needing more houses. Builders were ramping up construction before the lockdowns, and now most indicators suggest they’ve picked up where they left off. (Unlike many other parts of the economy.) Angst at tight urban living and low interest rates have only added to...
Chinese stocks have been surging this year as investors embrace the country’s flourishing digital economy. However, one of its most established names hasn’t broken out yet: Baidu – “the Google of China.”
BIDU entered the current environment in a weak place after years of revamping its search and advertising business. However it’s reported strong results in the...
The U.S. dollar has been sliding, with at least three major catalysts now weighing on the greenback:
1-Better economic numbers overseas, especially Chinese GDP last week
2-No QE boost from the European Central Bank last week, or the People’s Bank of China this week
3-A key stimulus deal by EU leaders this week
Meanwhile back in the U.S., politicians are...
Facebook has lagged other big tech and FANG stocks recently. It’s up just 4 percent in the last month, less than half the gain of the Nasdaq-100 in the same period.
One reason is that it was overbought after breaking out to new highs on May 20. It then reeled on news of an advertiser boycott last month, but quickly returned to its old range above the January...
