ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Deteriorating market breadth flashed warning signs for the stock market once again. A signal from the currency market is adding weight to the warning: the Australian dollar versus the Japanese yen (AUD/JPY). AUD/JPY represents the divergence dragging on the stock market. AUD/JPY topped out from March to June, a period over which many individual stocks … Read more
Stock Market Commentary I feel like a broken record pointing out the shrinking participation accompanying the stock market’s persistent rally. However, the downtrend in market breadth becomes more and more notable over time. More signals converged this week of eroding underlying conditions despite the all-time highs on the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. Even the … Read more
The Follow-Through: Churning While the S&P 500 (SPY) cruised higher all week, much of the rest of the market resigned to churning. The dichotomy of a market rebound versus the wounds left to heal continued to play out. Many of the follow-through trades for this week churned with the rest of the stock market. See … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Even the Federal Reserve must sit back and marvel as the S&P 500 (SPY) refuses to rest for long. Post-Fed handwringing sent the stock market into a period of doubt over previous assumptions of inflation fears. The previous week even ended with oversold conditions looming. However, as is the case with so … Read more
The Follow-Through Intro The stock market followed a rare stumble with a broad-based rebound from “oversold enough” conditions. Stocks were generally up across the board as buyers rushed in to grab “bargains.” AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), jumped from 37% to 46%. My favorite technical indicator … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The Federal Reserve seemed to change the rules of the game. To-date, easy money policies and stubborn dovishness in the face of rising inflation was a formula for higher asset prices, reflation and inflation-friendly trades, and even rising fears of an over-heating economy. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell shifted the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The drag I described in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s pronouncements on monetary policy eroded the stock market a lot more than I thought. Market breadth printed a major fakeout with my favorite indicator plunging in the wake of deep selling in inflation-related trades from commodities to industrials to financials. The … Read more
A Fresh Crack from the Currency Market At the time of writing, the Australian dollar versus the Japanese yen (AUD/JPY) is falling below its 50-day moving average (DMA) (the red line in the chart below) for the first time since last September. This move is the latest yellow, perhaps red, flag on the stock market … Read more
Stock Market Commentary After writing the last Above the 40 post, I thought the market would soon force me off the fence and onto the bullish side of the pasture. Even with post-Fed churn in play, the market looked like it was digesting inflation fears pretty well. Instead, a rolling interruption for the stock market’s … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A great stock market divergence clarified itself last week. Growth stocks, especially the expensive and/or speculative kind, took a back seat to industrial and consumer names and other stocks primed to benefit most from the global economies reopening on a fresh wave of liquidity. This divergence renders a generalized view of the … Read more