How extended is this market?

Mid-week market update: I have said before that the stock market is extended in its advance and it could pull back at any time. How extended? Here is another metric.

 

Bollinger Bands (BB) are overbought/oversold indicators. If a stock or index rises above its 2 standard deviation BB. it is said to be overbought. Standard calculations of BBs are based on a 20 dma. It's unusual to see the market rise up above its upper 200 dma BB. The S&P 500 recently reached 110% above of its upper BB. The history of such episodes (pink bars) show that it usually pulls back soon afterwards. There were only two exceptions since 1997 when the market experienced a sustained uptrend (shown by arrows).

 

The full post can be found here.

Did the NVIDIA-fueled rally exhaust the bulls?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models 

We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Asset Allocation Model is an asset allocation model that applies trend-following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity prices. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. The performance and full details of a model portfolio based on the out-of-sample signals of the Trend Model can be found here.

My inner trader uses a trading model, which is a blend of price momentum (is the Trend Model becoming more bullish, or bearish?) and overbought/oversold extremes (don't buy if the trend is overbought, and vice versa). Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the email alerts is updated weekly here. The hypothetical trading record of the trading model of the real-time alerts that began in March 2016 is shown below.

 

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities (Last changed from “sell” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trend Model signal: Bullish (Last changed from “neutral” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trading model: Neutral (Last changed from “bullish” on 24-Jan-2024)*

* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends. I am also on X/Twitter at @humblestudent. Subscribers receive real-time alerts of trading model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of those email alerts is shown here.

Subscribers can access the latest signal in real time here.

NVIDIA’s week

The main market focus of last week was NVIDIA. Anticipation was building ahead of the company’s earnings report and option positioning was extremely bullish. In the end, the bulls were rewarded by a blowout report. NVIDIA’s stock surged and pulled the market up with it.

However, the advance was marred by poor internals. The rally in the S&P 500 took it to the top of its Bollinger Band, but it’s rare that upper BB rides are accompanied by negative RSI divergences and poor participation. Moreover, it’s unusual to see the market rally to an all-time high with the NASDAQ Summation Index flat when it should have been a source of strength.

 

 

The full post can be found here.

The path to Magnificent Exuberance

Signs of technical deteriorations had been appearing last week, but NVIDIA’s earnings report saved the day. The earnings report can best be described as a blowout. The results beat Street expectations on all metrics and the company guided upwards. There wasn’t anything not to dislike about the report. As a consequence, the Semiconductor Index, which is a bellwether for artificial intelligence (AI) related plays, rallied strongly after briefly testing the lower bound of its absolute and relative return rising channels.

Even though some excesses are appearing, I reiterate my view that the AI bubble has far more room to run before it reaches the phase of Magnificent Exuberance (see Why this AI bull is nothing like the NASDAQ in 2000).

The full post can be found here.

NVIDIA at the bat

Mid-week market update: The poem "Casey at the Bat" may represent an apt analogy for today's stock market (see Wikipedia entry if you're unfamiliar with it). Technical warnings signs had been appearing. The S&P 500, the NASDAQ 100, and the Semiconductors Index, which is a bellwether for AI-related plays, had all weakened and violated their 10 dma. Even the Russell 2000 small cap index, which is largely unrelated to AI market factors, weakened below its 10 dma. 

 

Much like the story in the poem, it was up to Casey (NVDIA), mighty Casey (NVIDIA) to pull the team out at the end.

 

The full post can be found here.

Are negative divergences necessarily bearish?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models 

We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Asset Allocation Model is an asset allocation model that applies trend-following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity prices. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. The performance and full details of a model portfolio based on the out-of-sample signals of the Trend Model can be found here.

My inner trader uses a trading model, which is a blend of price momentum (is the Trend Model becoming more bullish, or bearish?) and overbought/oversold extremes (don't buy if the trend is overbought, and vice versa). Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the email alerts is updated weekly here. The hypothetical trading record of the trading model of the real-time alerts that began in March 2016 is shown below.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities (Last changed from “sell” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trend Model signal: Bullish (Last changed from “neutral” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trading model: Neutral (Last changed from “bullish” on 24-Jan-2024)*

* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends. I am also on X/Twitter at @humblestudent. Subscribers receive real-time alerts of trading model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of those email alerts is shown here.

Subscribers can access the latest signal in real time here.

Divergences everywhere

From a technical perspective, divergences may not matter in the short term, but long-term divergences are particularly worrisome. 

The accompanying chart shows a series of long-term divergences that are concerning. Even as the S&P 500 rallied to all-time highs, the NYSE Advance-Decline Line did not confirm the fresh high. The relative performance of high beta to low volatility stocks, which is an indicator of equity risk appetite, is barely testing its overhead resistance. In the meantime, the 10-year Treasury yield (inverted scale) has been climbing and higher yields offer an increasingly more attractive alternative for investors. And the USD, which is historically inversely correlated to the S&P 500, has been rallying and creating headwinds for stock prices.

 

 

How concerned should investors be about these divergences?

 

The full post can be found here.

Is transitory disinflation here to stay?

I’ve discussed the risk of transitory disinflation before, and it manifested itself in the form of hotter-than-expected January CPI and PPI reports. The reports rattled the bond market and expectations of the first quarter-point rate cut has been pushed out from May to June and a slower rate cut trajectory for the remainder of year.

As a reminder, here is Fed Chair Powell reply in to a question about the timing of rate cuts in his 60 Minutes interview: “We just want to see more good [inflation] data along those lines. It doesn't need to be better than what we've seen, or even as good. It just needs to be good. And so, we do expect to see that.” 

 

The hot CPI report was undoubtedly a shock to Fed officials who had watching a series of tame inflation reports.

The latest BoA Global Fund Manager Survey showed that only 4% of respondents expect higher rates and 7% expect higher inflation. It was therefore no surprise that bond prices skidded badly in the wake of the CPI report.

 

Do the stronger-than-inflation reports mean a pivot to a “higher for longer” narrative? Here are bull and bear cases.

 

The full post can be found here.

A hiccup, or the start of a correction?

Mid-week market update: The hot CPI print on Tuesday spark a massive risk-off episode. The S&P 500 staged a partial recovery today. The key question is, "Is this just a hiccup in the bull run, or the start of a correction?"

 

The stock market has been ripe for a correction for some time. The percentage of bullish stocks on P&F charts has flashed a negative divergence, which has usually resolved in a market downdraft.

 

The full post can be found here.

Why this AI bull is nothing like the NASDAQ in 2000

Preface: Explaining our market timing models 

We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Asset Allocation Model is an asset allocation model that applies trend-following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity prices. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. The performance and full details of a model portfolio based on the out-of-sample signals of the Trend Model can be found here.

My inner trader uses a trading model, which is a blend of price momentum (is the Trend Model becoming more bullish, or bearish?) and overbought/oversold extremes (don't buy if the trend is overbought, and vice versa). Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the email alerts is updated weekly here. The hypothetical trading record of the trading model of the real-time alerts that began in March 2016 is shown below.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities (Last changed from “sell” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trend Model signal: Bullish (Last changed from “neutral” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trading model: Neutral (Last changed from “bullish” on 24-Jan-2024)*

* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends. I am also on X/Twitter at @humblestudent. Subscribers receive real-time alerts of trading model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of those email alerts is shown here.

Subscribers can access the latest signal in real time here.

Priced to the point of insanity?

You may have seen the charts of the relative performance of the NASDAQ 100 to S&P 500. The ratio has already exceeded the dot-com peak in 2000. In addition, NYU professor Aswath Damodaran, who is regarded as the dean of company valuations, went on CNBC to say that Nvidia is priced “to the point of insanity”, while the other Magnificent Seven stocks are roughly fairly priced.

 
While the latest AI-driven mania may seem stretched by historical standards, we would argue that it has a lot further to run before the AI bull is done.
 

The full post can be found here.

How investable is China? (Revisited)

About a year ago, when China emerged out of its zero-COVID lockdowns, I rhetorically asked, “How investable is China?”. I concluded, “Long-term investors in China are likely to face subpar returns coupled with high volatility”.

Now that China’s troubles have returned, it’s time to revisit the China investability question. The accompanying chart shows that China’s debt has exploded over the past decades, driven by a regime of growth-at-any-cost malinvestment. Similar credit cycles in other economies have resolved in financial crises. Will China be any different and how should investors react?

 The full post can be found here.

Correction imminent?

Mid-week market update: I am sure everyone has seen the breadth divergences. Even as the S&P 500 rises to all-time highs, different versions of the Advance-Decline Line are struggling. Breadth deterioration is evident the further down you go in market capitalization.

 

 

The full post can be found here.

Get ready to buy in May...

Preface: Explaining our market timing models 

We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.

The Trend Asset Allocation Model is an asset allocation model that applies trend-following principles based on the inputs of global stock and commodity prices. This model has a shorter time horizon and tends to turn over about 4-6 times a year. The performance and full details of a model portfolio based on the out-of-sample signals of the Trend Model can be found here.

My inner trader uses a trading model, which is a blend of price momentum (is the Trend Model becoming more bullish, or bearish?) and overbought/oversold extremes (don't buy if the trend is overbought, and vice versa). Subscribers receive real-time alerts of model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of the email alerts is updated weekly here. The hypothetical trading record of the trading model of the real-time alerts that began in March 2016 is shown below.

The latest signals of each model are as follows:

• Ultimate market timing model: Buy equities (Last changed from “sell” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trend Model signal: Bullish (Last changed from “neutral” on 28-Jul-2023)*
• Trading model: Neutral (Last changed from “bullish” on 24-Jan-2024)*

* The performance chart and model readings have been delayed by a week out of respect to our paying subscribers.

Update schedule: I generally update model readings on my site on weekends. I am also on X/Twitter at @humblestudent. Subscribers receive real-time alerts of trading model changes, and a hypothetical trading record of those email alerts is shown here.

Subscribers can access the latest signal in real time here.

A 2024 Roadmap

A combination of factors is converging to draw a stock market roadmap for 2024. Instead of the more familiar seasonal pattern of “sell in May and go away”, I would advocate a strategy of buying in May. The main factors that affect this roadmap are election year seasonality and the timing of the first rate cut.

Historically, the market has traced out a choppy pattern until May, followed by a rally into September, a pause and a rally into year-end. The market has so far outrun its seasonal pattern in 2024, with the warning that February has historically been weak during election years, according to Nautilus Investment Research.

The full post can be found here.

How Trump's isolationism threatens long-term equity returns

Now that Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Wall Street is scrambling to model how a Trump White House may affect capital markets. A recent Bloomberg article summarized the consensus:

• Bond market: Expect rising yields from upward pressures on term premium.
• Currencies: Rising yields will put a bid under the USD.
• Equities: Stocks in limbo as it’s difficult to form a consensus.

I wrote about the effects of a Trump victory about a month ago (see What the Politics of 2024 Tell Us About 2025) and highlighted the geopolitical risk from Trump’s foreign policy. Further analysis leads us to believe that Trump’s foreign policy could unravel the “Stocks for the Long Run” narrative popularized by Jeremy Siegel. This could have profound long-run implications for investors in their investment planning.

 

Here’s why.

 

The full post can be found here.