By The S&P 500 closed on a new high again. The defensive leadership really surged on Thursday and Friday, as we moved through Options Expiration. This is starting to be a meaningful trend that worries me.
Commodities had a huge up week, but commodity related trades were a mixed bag. Oil names were poor considering oil was up big. Gold, Silver and industrial metals like Copper had a good week and the miners did too. There are some charts below detailing the difficulty with the US Dollar trade coming up and it is important to check the US dollar as the week progresses.
Last week I was wondering about the weakness in commodities and that was certainly answered this week. Boom Baby!
Once again, the stocks declining big outpaced the stocks up big. 460 stocks were up big and more than 600 were down big. That happened last week too but it was almost even last week with a little more to the downside. It’s getting worse is what I am saying.
Bond yields continue to moderate, helping the gold trade as well.
The currencies are tightly wound as the US Dollar has pulled back for two weeks. We are about to see if that is going to continue or if we will get a surprise reversal that sends commodities lower. Bitcoin broke its major uptrend line this week.
The Bullish percent indexes and other indicators are at or near all-time highs for breadth. On the video I did a look back to see how bullish that is. It actually is a little cautionary. I would encourage you to follow it along as I review 5 past peaks.
Summary: All the indexes made higher highs this week. The leadership by the defensive areas of the market is starting to make me pause. Financials were oddly below average this week, even though banks reported stellar numbers. Oil rallied but energy stocks didn’t. I want to stay cautious on adding to energy until that improves. These weak cyclical signals are concerning to me. Stay bullish with tighter stops.
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Keep-Your-Guard-Up-April-16-2021