Since 2011, the US stock market, represented by the S&P Composite, has outperformed the world. In the last couple of weeks or so, it has managed to break out from a trading range in its relationship with the rest of the world and looks headed even higher on... READ MORE
Below, Chart 1 shows a weekly plot for the 30-year yield, where we can see a perfectly formed top whose completion was followed by a negative 65-week EMA crossover. At the time of the breakdown, there were few grounds for suspecting a false break. However, in the last couple of... READ MORE
Using West Texas Crude, Chart 1 features one of my favorite techniques for identifying changes in long-term trends, which is simply a PPO using the 6- and 15-month parameters. When it is above zero, it's bullish, and when below, bearish. The pink shading indicates bearish periods, and the... READ MORE
China's stock market exploded last week in an amazing rally, so formidable that it raises the question of whether it could be the start of a new bull market, or just a short-covering rally which will quickly fizzle out. In that respect, it's important to note... READ MORE
The Dollar Index has been selling off sharply in the last few weeks and has now reached critical support in the form of the lower part of its recent trading range. The big question is whether it will break below the range or extend it in any way. Chart 1... READ MORE
Most of the primary trend indicators I follow are in a bullish mode and show few signs of flagging. That said, some intermarket relationships, which help to indicate whether the environment is risk-off or risk-on, have started to move in a risk-off direction. That's usually a bearish omen... READ MORE
Every business cycle has an inflationary and deflationary part, and it's very important for both traders and investors at least to try to have some understanding which has the upper hand at any particular point in time. For example, when the economy is in a slowdown or recessionary... READ MORE
Last June, I wrote an articlewhose title was more or less the same as this one. At the time, the Index was bumping up against the top of a major trading range, and it looked very much as if it was about to experience an upside breakout. My conclusion was... READ MORE
It's not very often that any market experiences a 10-year breakout, let alone a 45-year one. That, however, is what Chart 1 says is about to materialize for the inflation-adjusted gold price. Since the chart is based on monthly data, we will not know for sure until the... READ MORE
Last Monday, markets around the world experienced a sharp drop as the unwinding of yen carry trades followed the previous Friday's response to a weak employment report. The speed and sharpness of the equity sell-off got the attention of the general-purpose media and just about everyone else. From... READ MORE
KEY TAKEAWAYS * Small-cap stocks look like they have lost momentum. * Market breadth in small-cap stocks appears to be weakening. * The Utilities sector seems to be gaining momentum. Just so we are on the same page, I looked up "Great Rotation" on Microsoft's Copilot and came away... READ MORE
The bond market experienced a secular bear between 1981 and the spring of 2020. Chart 1 offers three reasons why it has since reversed and given way to a secular uptrend or possibly multi-year trading range. The first piece of evidence comes from violating the multi-decade trendline. Second, the price... READ MORE
Most weekends, I run through a chart list featuring weekly bars and candlesticks of bonds, stocks and commodities to see if any one or two bar patterns or candlestick formations have developed. Last week produced a crop of bearish messages from the major averages and some sectors. Before you rush... READ MORE
A silver cross occurs when a 20-day MA crosses above its 50-day counterpart. While far from perfect, such signals enable you to ride a persistent trend. However, like all trend following techniques, problems can occur in a trading range environment. Chart 1 features two recent buy signals for the S&... READ MORE
The legendary technician Edson Gould had a rule that, after three discount rate hikes, the stock market would be likely to stumble. That doesn't apply to emerging markets, but it did make a catchy headline. What is relevant to the iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM) is that,... READ MORE
Residential housing is not important for its size relative to GDP, which, according to Copilot, is about 3-5%. Rather, due to its interest rate sensitivity, housing is significant because it is the first sector of the economy to turn at the end of a recession, and the first to turn... READ MORE
The Transportation Sector has been one of the weaker brethren of late. That's important, as this market average forms part of the Dow Theory, which many observers believe is currently signaling a bear market. However, back in January, I wrote a piece on the Dow Theorythat came to... READ MORE
Chart 1 shows that the Dollar Index has been in a trading range since the start of 2023. Its sheer size indicates the ultimate breakout could be followed by a sizeable move in either direction. It is also likely to have important implications for many different markets and asset classes.... READ MORE
In most cycles, central banks around the world raise and lower short-term interest rates in a rough synchronization. Last week, the European and Canadian central banks began lowering their rates, and the British are expected to follow suit this week. Most observers of the US expect the Federal Reserve to... READ MORE
The Canadian and Aussie dollars have been confined between two converging trendlines since the beginning of the century, as we can see from Chart 1. The moment of truth appears to be close at hand, as both are approaching the apex of a giant potential symmetrical triangle. One usually consistent... READ MORE
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an upbeat article on the US stock market opining that the correction was over. I still think that's the case, but I do have to note that a bearish outside bar formed on both the S&P and NASDAQ on... READ MORE
It's rare when you see a multi-year breakout take place, but, when several materialize more or less at the same time, that should really get our attention. That's not simply because of the opportunities being presented, but also because several simultaneous breakouts indicate a broader participation... READ MORE
Last February, I wrote an article on emerging markets, using the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) as my benchmark. I pointed out that this sector was close, but had not quite broken out to the upside. Now it has, and the outlook is favorable for at least a 4-6-month... READ MORE
The magnitude and duration of corrections are largely determined by the direction of the prevailing primary trend. If it's bearish, they tend to be more severe and last longer. In a bull market, it's just the opposite, as they are generally short and sweet, if you... READ MORE
I last wrote about the dollar in December, where I came to the conclusion that a limited rally was a likely possibility in what was assumed to be a primary bull market. I am still of the view that the bull market is alive and well, but it's... READ MORE
Back in early February, I wrote an article entitled "Only a Fool Would Try to Call a Correction in a Bull Market, So Here Goes". In it, I was trying to point out that counter-cyclical corrections are notably difficult to identify, as they often terminate just at the... READ MORE
In the last couple of weeks, I have been reading stories about shoppers picking up gold bars in, of all places, Costco. According to Gemini, the AI branch of Google, "Reports indicate they may be selling up to $200 million worth of gold bars every month." Normally, thin... READ MORE
Wednesday brought an unexpected firming up of the inflation figures, causing analysts and commentators to trim the number of times they expect interest rates to be cut this year. Whenever it is that the questions turn away from whether to when and by how much, as was the case until... READ MORE
This may seem like a contradiction, but it is possible for two different things to be true at the same time. What I am referring to is the fact that the health care sector (XLV) recently broke out from a consolidation reverse head-and-shoulders pattern, as we can see from the... READ MORE
Sometimes, simple indicators like bar or candlesticks operate just as the textbooks tell us they should. I don't normally follow individual stocks, but the hype surrounding last week's listing of Trump Media piqued my interest to see if the technical position squared with what the many... READ MORE
To paraphrase the late great contrarian Humphrey Neil: When everyone thinks alike, it's usually time to look for a turn in the market. It seems to me, after reviewing an unscientific survey of the financial media, that everyone and his dog (no disrespect to our canine friends) is... READ MORE
By now it's common knowledge that the Chinese property sector is in crisis, foreign investment has slowed, and youth unemployment is at record levels. Should be time to sell Chinese equities, right? After all, we don't know when the other shoe is going to drop. They... READ MORE
Last week, I pointed out the inflationary consequences of the recent gold breakout, as gold market participants initially expect prices to firm up in the commodity pits and later the CPI itself. This week, we will take those thoughts a step further by relating swings in industrial commodity prices to... READ MORE
The title of this article may be exaggerated, but, last Friday, the probabilities for an upward reversal in the rate of inflation later this year went substantially higher. That's because the gold price, an inflationary bellwether, broke out from a 4-year trading range to a new all-time high.... READ MORE
Absorbing the information gleaned from monthly charts for various asset classes or sectors can help gain some perspective. However, I find that an examination of the relationships between them can be equally rewarding, if not moreso. That's because they point out the nature of the current investment environment,... READ MORE
Last November I asked the question "Are emerging markets about to emerge?"Using the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) as our benchmark, I concluded that more strength was needed in order to push the indicators into a bullish mode. In the intervening period, things have improved, but... READ MORE
Last November and December, it looked as if gold had broken out from a multi-year inverse head-and-shoulders. Since then, the price has dropped below the breakout area, and the long-term KST has begun to roll over. Just like takeoff and landing are the critical points for an aircraft, breakouts are... READ MORE
The vast majority of the primary trend indicators are pointing to a bull market and have been doing so for the better part of a year. Chart 1, for instance, shows that NYSE Margin Debt, or rather its long-term KST, has only recently gone bullish. The vertical lines point out... READ MORE
Oil is not only an important commodity in and of itself, but is also one has a substantial influence on commodity indexes in general. Its weight in the CRB Composite is 23%; for energy in total, it is 39%. Chart 1 compares the oil price to the CRB Composite, where... READ MORE
Some tools in technical analysis are totally objective, such as a moving average crossover. It may be debatable whether it's a decisive signal or not, but a crossover is nevertheless a crossover. Dow Theory, on the other hand, is much more subjective and, therefore, open to interpretation. For... READ MORE