Category: Currencies

The Next 10 Days

Posted on Posted in Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Indicators, Lunar Cycles, Macro, Solar Cycles, Stocks21 Comments

…I will be in a motorhome, touring NZ North Island, so internet access is going to be occasional and fleeting. So an update and roundup on the markets below, and I will post in the comments beneath it anything important in that period. After New Zealand it’s Abu Dhabi for a week, the last stop on the trip, before returning to Europe.

Let’s start with gold. Major extreme readings were reached last week in oversold and overbearish measures, in both gold and gold miners, many more extreme than in the 2008 sharp falls. I won’t reproduce them here, as many blogs and sites have shown them, but it was sufficiently extreme for me to add to both gold and miners last week as declared. Gold has since rallied away from those extremes and therefore in price, and whilst I don’t know how it will shape technically from here, the key question is whether its secular bull is over and ended in 2011 with silver’s parabolic rise and fall. So here is gold since the start of its secular bull in 2000, measured in all the major currencies. It should be clear that gold has tracked sideways since 2011 and has consolidated up high, whichever currency it is measured in.

260220139

Source: Gold.org

As a parabolic excessive-greed finale is the norm as a conclusion to an asset secular bull, and as gold is the leading asset in a Kondratieff winter (which we are concluding), I would give good odds to gold finishing with a blow-off parabolic. A comparison with gold’s last secular bull, below, shows that blow-off parabolic clearly and how gold’s secular bull this time has been fairly measured to date.

2602201310

Source: Nowandfutures

I am not suggesting that gold has to shoot as high as the comparison suggests – only rather that some kind of excessive exuberance would be a normal end. So, the lack of parabolic ending move in gold yet, together with the high sideways consolidation when the whole secular bull from 2000 is viewed, give me a couple of reasons why I believe we have been seeing a final washout of weak hands before gold breaks higher. However, I await supporting evidence such as from sunspots breaking higher (to confirm the solar peak is ahead), commodities starting to outperform equities, and inflation picking up. This is how sunspots look:

2602201313

There is a mess, rather than a trend. If the solar peak is ahead this year, which remains the most common forecast, then we need to see daily sunspots register over 200 to make the uptrend clearer. So I am looking out for that.

Since my last post on the markets it has become clearer that pro-risk did begin a correction at the turn of January into February. The chart below combines proxies for stocks, commodities, risk-safehaven FX and treasury bond yields.
260220134

I suggest there are two paths forward, both of which eventually will see equities return to their highs, in order to deliver a negative divergence top (price advances but internals weaken). The first is the five-models-in-alignment path, which suggests pro-risk may pull back into March before advancing again. The second is that pro-risk is only making a normal lunar pullback, into yesterday’s full moon, and will continue upwards over the next few weeks, for a Spring swing top. This option is supported by cyclicals as a leading indicator, and my geomagnetism model shown:

2602201312

The tail on the model stretches out into the end of March and remains in an uptrend due to unseasonally tame geomagnetism (actual and forecast). The oscillations within that are the lunar phase pressures.

There also remains a fairly benign macro-economic environment, which should support pro-risk, although we should always be alert for early warning signs of a change, and we could potentially have this in the latest PMIs.

China PMI, US PMI and Europe PMI in order below:

260220131

260220132

260220133Source: Markit

A droop in the latest data, but still positive in China and the US.

Meanwhile, economic surprises show unclear developments in both Europe and the US, but using oil prices as a leading indicator for the latter, a topping out in this measure may occur in Spring.

260220135

260220136Source: BrokenMarkets / Citigroup

US earnings season is pretty much over, and the final results in both earnings and revenues were good, and supportive for equities.

260220137

260220138Source: Bespoke

The latest Conference Board leading indicator data table looks like this:

2602201311

Source: Conference Board

Since my last market post, readings for China, Germany, US and Mexico all came in positive. The table is healthy, for now.

In summary, the picture between leading indicators and economic/earnings data is fairly supportive for pro-risk for now, unless that droop in PMI readings becomes wider weakness ahead.

There is bearish sentiment towards sugar, coffee, wheat, corn and cattle currently, as well as the precious metals, and I would add to commodity positions if we saw improved evidence of a secular commodities peak ahead, namely those developments listed above. Until that becomes clearer however, I am playing it safe and sticking largely with what I have, as both the primary (secular commodities and solar peak ahead) and alternative (secular and solar peak passed) scenarios remain in play.

Final Month Of 2012

Posted on Posted in Commodities, Currencies, Indicators, Macro, Stocks22 Comments

Certain key assets are finely poised as we enter December. The UK FTSE is once again attempting upside breakout from its long term triangle.

4dec20124

The German Dax is also back attacking key resistance. Yesterday it was repelled at this key level. I suggested yesterday it may need a couple of sessions’ consolidation before a breakout – and this is because it has already travelled a fair way since mid November on ‘one leg’.

4dec20123

The Nasdaq (and equally the Dow) is attempting to reclaim its 200MA (the SP500 is clear above). The Nasdaq remains in its neat cyclical bull channel, and stocks in general continue to display good breadth and cyclicals performance that are not suggestive of a top.

4dec20125

That said, a combined failure in the FTSE and Dax at upper resistance and the Nas and dow at their 200MAs would open up the possibility of a renewed leg down, and for the two US indices that would then look more like a major top had occurred.

I maintain a bullish outlook for equities into year end, due to positive seasonality (including Presidential), tame forecast geomagnetism, a lack of common cyclical bull topping indicators in the US indices, and renewed breakout attempts in the FTSE and Dax (typically resistance caves in under repeated attacks, the Hang Seng has already led the way, and by solar/secular history an upwards breakout at this point would be normal). We have a period now into and around the new moon of 13 December which should also be supportive. So let’s see if I am correct and all these indices break upwards.

Let me just list one or two other ‘important’ dates into year end. The Puetz crash window extends into the end of this week. The Mayan global transformation / apocalypse is 21 December, the last major Bradley turn is 22 December. The last full moon of the year is 28 December and the fiscal cliff deadline is the end of December. Out of those five, I am not convinced of the first three, but it does no harm to maintain awareness.

The finely poised position in key assets extends to commodities and Euro-USD. The broad CCI commodities index is at downsloping resistance in a potential bullish head and shoulders formation. Ditto the Euro-USD.

4dec20121

Source: Bloomberg4dec20122

Combining stocks, commodities and Euro-USD, we have two clear paths forward: one, pro-risk breaks out (the correction in October / November was a correction in an ongoing cyclical bull), and two, pro-risk is repelled here and resumes downward (the rally in the second half of November was a relief rally in a new downtrend). As is usual when the markets are finely poised, some confusing and teasing action could occur this week, with both bulls and bears prematurely claiming victory before true resolution comes to pass.

Besides the reasons above, one other key reason why I favour a bullish year end for pro-risk, is the improvement in global leading indicators. Markit released many individual country PMI reports yesterday, including fresh growth in China (whether looking at official or HSBC data). Below is the combined global picture, and the theme is fairly clear: a distinct up-tick. This is echoed in Conference Board global leading indicators. The general improvement is not in doubt, the question is whether this is just a temporary relief rally in a continued downtrend, or whether leading indicators have bottomed out.

4dec20126Source: Markit

And here we get to the real key issue. By solar cycles, a growthflationary finale should occur into next year’s solar peak. By stock market history, cyclical stocks bulls end with excessive inflation and overtightening of rates. A cyclical stocks bear here and a tipping into global recession at this point into 2013 would mark an anomaly in both those historic indicators. It would be evidence that central bank actions in cutting rates and applying stimulus have been impotent in this cycle, and that too would also mark an anomaly in history, because historically interest rate cuts have had a positive impact on the economy between 9 and 24 months after cutting cycles, and Quantitative Easing has so far been shown to work its impact through in the two years following asset purchases. The two charts below show the renewed easing and stimulating efforts over the last 18 months – not as dramatic as in 2008-9 but nonetheless a fresh round of pro-action and intervention.

4dec20127

4dec20128Source: Action Forex

If the mechanism is not broken, and such action is not impotent, then we ought to see economic improvement occurring now and into next year. I believe this is the case, as currently global leading indicators are improving, PMIs are improving, and growth in narrow money suggests global industrial output will increase ahead. It is possible that we therefore do see that growthlationary finale next year and we do get normal cyclical stocks bull termination under conditions of excessive frothiness and an upswing in market rates. But one step at at time – first we need to see a couple of months of continued improvement in leading indicators to be confident that this is a new up trend and a normal positive impact lag to central bank actions together with normal buying/speculating/risk-taking behaviour into the solar maximum. If this does not occur and instead we topple over again in terms of leading indicators and key assets, then either (i) the triple historic anomaly would have indeed come to pass (‘it’s different this time’) or (ii) yet further central bank action and unorthodox policy tools are deployed soon ahead before we finally do get that growthflationary finale not too far from the solar peak.

Until evidence points otherwise, I side with it not being different this time and that we will see normal behaviour into the solar maximum, aided by lagged impacts from central bank actions, and normal conditions to come to pass for a cyclical stocks bull end. I believe the current technical action in risk assets is supportive of this, in that we see certain key stock indices pushing to break out, an absence of normal cyclical stocks bull topping indicators (such as breadth divergence and defensives outperforming) and gold in a renewed up trend back above its 200MA following an 11 month consolidation.

Key Assets In Charts

Posted on Posted in Commodities, Currencies, Stocks11 Comments

The Hang Seng is at long term resistance, attempting to break out. By my secular/solar history analysis, the kind of path shown by the arrow would be appropriate, i.e. a breakout here, a rally away from the range, then a pullback in keeping with a final bear and mild recession before a new secular bull takes off with momentum.

The German stock index and US SP500 stock index share a similar look to each other: battling to hold the breakouts made above the March 2012 highs. My leaning is that they are making bull flags above the breakout, successfully backtesting before advancing. This consolidation of several weeks post QE announcement fits the action post QE2 announcement before advancing, and it also fits with Presidential seasonality, namely a consolidation mid-October before a rally around the US elections.

Crude oil appears to be making a rounded bottom:

Gold has paused at horizontal 1800 resistance, and has made a 23 fib retrace. It could potentially drop further to make a 38 fib retrace, but either way I believe gold will shortly resume its uptrend and break through 1800, targetting the next resistance at 1900. Supporting that, seasonality is most positive for gold Sept-Feb, gold has been building energy in an 11 month consolidation, and if pro-risk breaks out as I predict above, I expect precious metals to also.

The Euro-USD pair is at an important juncture. Either it is completing a bull flag in an ongoing uptrend and is about to break out above horizontal and down-sloping resistance, or its rally is going to end here at those key resistances and it will eventually break down beneath rising support. I favour the former, in line with pro-risk.

A broad agricultural commodities ETF is shown below. After the fierce rally of mid-2012, brought about by extreme global weather conditions, softs have pulled back to between a 38 and 50 fib retrace currently. This is in line with Gann predictions for a partial retrace before a renewed rally to new highs emerges as of now, so perhaps once at the 50 fib, I expect softs to renew their upward trend.

Supporting a rewewed advance in softs, the latest NOAA climate data for September came in as the hottest globally land/ocean for that month on record, and the latest US Department of Agriculture report revealed even tighter grains supply than previously understood.

Supporting a wider rally in pro-risk from here we have (i) US economic surprises still trending up, (ii) US ECRI leading indicators still trending up, (iii) US retail sales and consumer sentiment surprising to the upside, (iv) money supply and export data from China surprising to the upside, (v) money market spreads in Europe and the US back to benign levels, (vi) German investor sentiment rising more than expected. In short there is growing evidence of global reflation, and there is a useful chunk of data coming out this week that will either add to or subtract from that, namely, Conference Board LI data for several key countries, some key China data including GDP, and some big US earnings reports.

I believe pro-risk assets are primed to resume advancing technically, subject to supportive reflation evidence, and that recent data is supportive for reflation. I therefore maintain my pro-risk portfolio as it is.

I have updated all models this morning.

Friday Roundup

Posted on Posted in Currencies, Indicators, Stocks8 Comments

This is how the Sp500 stands. The consolidation is comparable after both QE announcements, if the market now proceeds to rally, and it has twin technical support for an uptrend resumption, as shown:

Its a useful triple confluence (channel support, holding above March highs and behaviour similar to the last QE announcement), because a decisive breakdown would swiftly provide 3 reasons to be bearish (i.e. triple confluence failure). I say decisive breakdown, because the market can sometimes make a fakeout to flush out the weak hands, so I’d want to see a couple of consecutive closes beneath the marked zones, to give more weight to the bearish alternative. The positive pressure around Monday’s new moon is still in play if the market can rally today and early next week, which gives us another reason for a renewed rally without delay, if it is going to happen.

The correction so far has largely neutralised indicators, such as II investor sentiment (now more bears than bulls), stocks above the 50MA (now back beneath the mean), and bullish percent / call put (neutral zone). If the correction is going to be a full flush out (or a new bear), then we’d expect these indicators to go all the way to extreme oversold/bearishness, but if this is just a consolidation in an uptrend then they have reset enough to push on again. I am still in the continued uptrend camp, and still expect the SP500 can reach around 1600 before keeling over. I maintain that because we don’t yet see the typical evironment for a cyclical bull market top (yields rising, inflation rising, leading indicators in a renewed downtrend, economic surprises in a downtrend, negative breadth divergence, etc) and that there is growing evidence of reflation.

What few US earnings report there have been so far have on average beaten expectations, but next week will produce a better sample.  ECRI leading indicators rose again last week and this week the shadow index is predicting the WLI growth will rise to 5.53 from 4.67. Conference Board leading indicators for the UK came in positive again today and higher than last month, but we have to wait until the end of next week for other country updates. OECD leading indicators came in unimpressive again this month:

 Source: OECD

The horizontal lines represent historic average growth, not a growth/recession divide, but nevertheless they don’t paint a picture yet of a global economy in resurgence. The particular bright spots in their report were Brazil and UK. There is a potential trend change in China occurring as shown, and the Shanghai stock index continues to look like it may be breaking out of its long term downward trend, plus the Baltic Dry index has risen 40% over the last couple of weeks, so I continue to watch these.

Yesterday grains had a bumper day as the latest US Department of Agriculture report suggested stockpiles will drop more than expected due to the adverse weather conditions and continued robust demand. And the US dollar index made an inverse hammer candle at both horizontal and diagonal resistance.

Source: Stockcharts

That’s only significant if there is now follow through, so again my focus is on how pro-risk and safety behave the next couple of sessions.

Friday Roundup

Posted on Posted in Currencies, Indicators, Stocks5 Comments

Yesterday’s action was bullish for pro-risk. The Nasdaq completed its successful backtest of key support by launching away from it. Oil completely reversed its heavy losses of the previous day. The Dow Transports pulled further back up into the range, making the recent drop out of the bottom look like a fakeout.

Source: TSP Talk

The Hang Seng has broken out of its long term triangle, to the upside.

That breakout is still tentative, but other Asian indices echo this, such as the Kospi:

Source: Bloomberg

Now let’s see if the Shanghai index can follow through on its tentative trend reversal next week, that it began before this week’s holidays.

The Baltic Dry index yesterday pulled another 6% away from its lows, and copper has recently broken out of a triangle to the upside.

Source: TradingCharts

And the US dollar broke down from a bear flag.

Source: TSP Talk

All in all, the picture is currently supportive for pro-risk and for reflation. Both AAII and II investor sentiment turned less bullish this week, putting both further neutral, and not indicating a top. So whilst there are a couple of topping flags for US equities, as noted in the last post, I don’t believe that’s enough at the moment to bring about a reversal here. Rather, if reflation is just getting going, and if Asian equities are just breaking out, then it seems more probable that the rally endures for some time yet.

Lastly, Yardeni’s fundametals versus stock market divergence in the US has now been partially resolved with the fundamentals turning up to point the same way as equities.

Source: Ed Yardeni

Current Markets And Macro

Posted on Posted in Currencies, Macro, Stocks14 Comments

Yesterday during the US session I was watching the support/resistance line on the Nasdaq shown:

It marks the March/April 2012 highs, and the battle below and above that level in August and September is clear to see. Having broken out above it in September, the market is now retesting the breakout and yesterday, marked by the arrow, saw the index briefly break down beneath it only to rally strongly into the close and hold above it. I believe that may be significant, and today’s out of hours action (Europe morning) is so far bullish. But, there remains the possibility that we are making a bear flag in a protracted correction, and the SP500 (below) and Dow are higher above the March/April peaks with more room to consolidate downwards.

We have a 2 week period of low forecast geomagnetism and upward pressure into the new moon now, and given last week was the seasonally worst week of the year together with a full moon, damage to pro-risk was contained. Supportive of pro-risk pressing upwards here is a particularly bullish correction formation in gold and a bear flag on the US dollar:

Source: TSP Talk

However, there are some warning flags for equities. This chart shows that when the Fear and Skew indices spiked together with a low Vix, equities were approaching a top.

Source: Sentimentrader

And this composite of Put/Call, Market Vane and Sentiment Surveys also suggests equities should be approaching a top.

Source: Technical Take

Note that with both charts, there is the scope for equities to top out now, or to keep rallying for another couple of months and then top out. So with that in mind, we can return to the top two charts of the SP500 and Nasdaq and watch to see whether they break back down below the March/April highs – which would make the breakout a fakeout and give more weight to a market top – or whether they can push on now this week and next and make the breakout backtest successful, which should mean a period of longer gains ahead as they move into clear air. My leaning is towards the latter because we don’t yet see the usual cyclical bear market topping signals or process.

We can look wider for more to gauge the environment for pro-risk. The key question is whether we are reflating or tumbling into recession. I previously noted the improvement in Conference Board global leading indicators but we have to wait until mid-month for new updates both in these and in OECD leading indicators. We have other data to keep an eye on though, starting with ECRI US leading indicators which rose again last week. It should be clear from the chart below that the action in the indicator does not resemble that in previous recessions:

Source: Dshort

RecesssionAlert caculate the probability that the US is in recession currently as 6.4%:

Source: RecessionAlert

Nowandfutures measure, which requires yield curve and CPI adjusted monetary base both to go negative, only has one in the territory:

Source: NowandFutures

Here are the latest global PMIs combined:

Source: World Bank

There is clearly some recent improvement, particularly in Europe. The key question is whether they are in a recovery trend, or just an oscillation in a continuing downtrend.

This is how I see it. There is some clear improvement in leading indicators globally. We have had 6 months of rate cuts and renewed stimulus. I expect the reflation. Solar and secular cycles support the reflation. But I’m not jumping the gun. I want to see more evidence of improvement. Clear upward trends. So it’s one day and one piece of data at a time. But I don’t see reasons to take profits on pro-risk longs at this point.

Dr.Copper is behaving bullishly of late, as is Dr.Kospi, and the Shanghai index was potentially breaking out of its wedging downtrend on a Demark buy signal and RSI positive divergence, prior to the Chinese holiday week – something to watch next week. Treasuries regained some ground as beneficiaries of last week’s correction in pro-risk, but by QE history should begin a more enduring downtrend – unless of course you believe this time is different.

In summary, there is tentative evidence of a global reflation that should provide the backdrop to a secular commodities finale, but I want more evidence. I see stocks at a crucial point technically, either backtesting their breakout succesfully, or failing, and my leaning is the former. There are some technical indicators for stocks flashing a top in terms of complacency and overbullishness, but as yet a lack of other supportive topping indicators. Because those flashing indicators could remain at those levels for a while longer, and given Presidential seasonality, I think we can push higher yet into November. In terms of my solar and secular timings, a topping out of equities as we turn into 2013 would be reasonable, so I believe we are approaching that stocks peak, but are not there yet.

Friday Roundup

Posted on Posted in Commodities, Currencies, Indicators, Macro, Stocks7 Comments

1. Chinese stocks are making another attempt at bottoming, and this one has promise. A falling wedge, positive RSI divergence and a potential fakeout beneath support as stocks rallied strongly yesterday and again today (today’s rise not shown), taking us towards 2100.

Underlying Source: Cobra/Stockcharts

2. The German Dax bounced yesterday at rising support. The technical situation is shown below – for my bullish case, the most important is to hold above the March 2012 highs – a previous resistance that should now be support. If the Dax can hold that rising support line then the next target is the cyclical bull highs to date of mid-2011.

3. The US SP500 index is already at new cyclical bull highs and so holding above that s/r line is again the priority for my bullish case. Again, it will be interesting to see if the index can hold the rising support and after a little small range consolidation around this weekend’s full moon, resume bullishly with that angle of trajectory. Recall that Presidential seasonality supports further gains all the way to the November elections, and whilst I wouldn’t specifically trade that phenomenon, it has been fairly reliable historically.

4. The Dow Transports continue to languish, but a little indecision at the bottom of the range could spell another reversal back into the range. It’s an important one to continue to watch.

Source: TSP Talk

Here is Ryan Puplava’s assessment of whether stocks are likely in a topping process here or not, and the Transports divergence is the only flag currently, he suggests:

  • A shift out of risk assets and into defensive sectors. (false)
  • Leading economic numbers and Fed surveys roll over (false)
  • Transport or Industrial indexes not confirming each other in new highs (true)
  • A lower high, or at least a break, in the market trend (false)
  • Momentum failure (false)
    • Flat/sideways market from support to break (false)
    • Momentum divergence at a higher high (false)
  • Distribution with 2400 or more declining issues on the NYSE in a given day (false)

Source: Ryan Puplava

5. Gold is also climbing a rising support and if about to face resistance close to 1800. It arrives here on fairly frothy sentiment, however, given its preceding 9 month range coiling and its peak seasonality period currently, I don’t place too much weight on the frothy sentiment. I rather suspect it will have a run where sentiment remains elevated. But let’s see how it deals with that horizontal resistance.

6. Euro-USD pulled back having reached overbought/overbullish, and could pull back a little further to rising resistance. The key question is whether it has made a medium term trend change given the renewed confidence in Euroland and the dollar-debasing US QE-without-end. We know that QE1 and QE2 announcements made for enduring rallies into pro-risk (after the initial spike and correction couple of weeks), which would suggest Euro-dollar, commodities and equities all rallying. There are no guarantees third time round, but market participants may lean more pro-risk, aware of that history.

7. The correction in pro-risk this week has done a reasonable job of deflating other overbullish/overbought indicators, in equities and crude oil amongst others. As previously noted, equities typically flirt with extremes for a period before rolling over, as opposed to hitting once and then collapsing, and we are generally looking at first touches.  Indicators such as stocks above 50MA and bullish percent over call/put have reset sufficiently to enable stocks to rally again, if that’s the will of the market. The two US equity sentiment surveys of II and AAII both continue to show fairly neutral readings, and as I am looking for the next market top to be a cyclical bull market top, we really should see these reach extremes.

Source: Schaeffers Research / Investors Intelligence

Source: Bespoke / AAII

8. Natural Gas has been the stealth hit of 2012. Below is a weekly chart as of the end of last week and this week it has risen to 3.3. If you bought at the bottom in April, you would be up 75%. Well, my story is this: I was one to buy in long in 2010 and 2011 as it dipped several times below 4 (at what appeared excellent historic value and historic extreme cheapness versus oil), only to see dire performance continue and even worsen. Hence my aggregate position is still underwater but as the excess gas inventories have been declining it looks like it may eventually turn a profit. I consider this asset to really have been a good example of ‘the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent’. My exposure was never that significant in my account, but it has taken a lot of patience to see a turnaround.

Source: TradingCharts

9.  On the macro front, we saw a couple of bad US data reports this week, the worst being durable goods orders. As a result, US Economic Surprises has taken a sharp fall and although still positive, needs watching closely in case of a trend change. Due to aggregate leading indicators trending up, I don’t expect that to be the case, but let’s see ECRI’s latest reading later today.

Source: Sober Look / Citigroup

As can be seen from the Dhort chart (hat tip Antonio), there is a relationship between the durable good orders and the SP500 performance that makes the data dip alarming:

Source: Dshort

There is a history of volatility in the durable goods number but that dip is one of the most dramatic. It’s a flag, but not on its own enough to make me want to take profits on stock indices longs at this point. With the improvement in aggregate leading indicators, the positive technical picture for equities, the renewed global stimulus, and the Presidential seasonality, the balance is still bullish. But for that to remain, other forthcoming data (of a leading style) needs to return better. Something to watch next week.

10. US earnings season starts the week after next and there is a fairly compelling relationship between the ISM PMI and SP500 earnings year over year (hat tip Gary). As can be seen below, the latest data for August was just below 50, i.e. around zero growth. The expectations for this earnings season are for earnings growth over the same quarter last year of -3.4%, i.e. a drop. That does potentially set us up for earnings to come in between zero and -3.4, i.e. to be bad but to beat expectations, which would normally be enough to rally equities. Clearly, both the ISM PMI and the analyst expectations are only guides, but there is a potential scenario there to fulfil the technically bullish picture for stocks, in October.

Source: Calculated Risk

Have a great weekend everyone.

Post FOMC

Posted on Posted in Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Indicators, Stocks10 Comments

The Fed delivered more than expected, with the big gains in pro-risk evidence that it wasn’t all priced in. Some key differences to prior: (i) QE delivered at market highs rather than lows (ii) Fed commitment to be accomodative even after recovery is entrenched (iii) specific targetting of improving jobs situation (iv) open ended (v) negligible rates out to 2015. With ECB bond buying and Fed QE, pro-risk has some key support going forward.

The RUT, Hang Seng and silver all broke out, and the dollar broke down. The Nas, SP500, Dow and junk bonds all broke further free. Treasury bonds had a mixed session, but that’s to be expected. Initial support for bonds, as the Fed will be a direct buyer again, should give way to a sustained move against bonds, per previous QE:

Source: Scott Grannis

Stock market breadth improved. Corporate insider buying/selling is at a level more consistent with market bottoms than tops.

Source: Istockanalyst

But today we do find various assets into both overbought and overbullish indicator extremes, such as precious metals and the Euro. The SP500 new highs/lows indicator also suggests overbought:

Source: Cobra / Stockcharts

Sentimentrader’s research post yesterday’s session suggests a consolidation may come to pass over the next couple of weeks before further gains. This fits with my own take. Technical breakouts in assets together with double QE (Europe and USA) are bullish, but overbought and overbullish indicators are to be respected. A consolidation over the next 2 weeks, the period into the next full moon, to relieve those indicators whilst maintaining the technical breakouts, would make sense.

My account is currently 30% up for the year, now on track for my 40% target. Clearly I am delighted with that and don’t want to jeopardise the gains, particularly as the bulk of the positions are open. But I don’t find reasons to pare back positions currently. The biggest risk remains global leading indicators. Yesterday CB produced the latest data for Korea which came in at zero, a 3 month high (which Japan and UK also managed). Today Spain came in at -0.6 (following -0.3 last month and -0.6 the month before). So Spain still weak, but some potential positive trends elsewhere. We need more data, over more time, to assess. But with regard to my forecasts of an overthrow in stocks to end their cyclical bear (accompanied by increasing inflation and treasury yields), and then a parabolic finale in commodities and inflation, I see an increasingly supportive picture. Euro debt settling down, economic surprises repaired, 6 months of rate cuts across the world by central banks, US and ECB QE, technical breakouts in stocks and precious metals, inverse H&S on treasury yields and probability of fulfillment, US dollar breakdown, and recent new highs in grains to deliver food price inflation as of Q4 2012. Weakness in leading indicators does not offset all this.

Technicals Into The FOMC

Posted on Posted in Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Indicators, Macro, Stocks7 Comments

This has been the story of my 2012. Took profits on stock indices longs from 2011 in the first couple of months of 2012, whilst retaining my secular commodities longs. Endured some pain as commodities fell into May. Bought stocks and commodities aggressively around 9-18 May as oversold and overbearish indicators aligned. Both then bottomed out and have since rallied. I took maybe 10% off in profits and have retained the rest.

I use the CCI commodities index above as it is equally weighted.

So, as things stand, all is well and I’ve got some very profitable positions (thanks to a little leverage), but with continued significant exposure. Do I want to cut some exposure, to mitigate a reversal in either class, or do I want to hold firm and play for continued upside in pro-risk for the remainder of the year? Here’s how things stand technically.

The Dow has broken above quadruple resistance and joined the SP500 and Nasdaq at new highs.

The Dow Transports appear to have completed a text book fake-out move, now breaking out the other way.

Source: TSP Talk

The Russell 2000 is at resistance.

The Hang Seng is also at resistance.

The Dax is challenging cyclical bull market highs.

10 year treasury bond yields continue to make an inverse H&S formation, which is bullish for pro-risk.

Source: Stockcharts

Junk Bonds have just broken above resistance.

Source: Bespoke

Silver is at resistance.

Source: Chris Kimble

The US dollar has reached levels of overbearishness.

Source: Sentimentrader

Equities sentiment is overly bullish by NAAIM (shown below), but not so by AAII (36% bulls, versus historic extreme zone 45+) or by Investors Intelligence (shown below).

Source: Sentimentrader

Source: Schaeffersresearch

In summary, it’s finely poised into today’s FOMC action (or non-action). The bullish breakouts in the Nas, SP500, Dow and Junk bonds are reversible at this point, as they are  only just at new highs. The bullish reversal in the Trans is positive. I suggest the edge is for a breakout in the Hang Seng triangle, rather than a breakdown, due to the Shanghai index having made a Demark seller exhaustion count, but continued ranging in the triangle’s nose is possible. Silver sentiment, silver resistance and dollar sentiment are suggestive of a forthcoming counter-trend move, i.e. a pullback in silver whilst the dollar pulls up.

Turning to leading indicators, CB produced the latest data for Japan and the UK this week. Japan came in at -0.8, still negative but a 3 month high. UK came in at +0.1, also a 3 month high. So a little encouraging, but I need to see more global LIs trending positively. The OECD’s latest global indicators come out today.

PIIGS CDSs and bond yields continue to ease. The German legal approval of ECB bond buying an important step.

So, to today’s FOMC. High expectation of QE, though unlikely fully priced in if delivered. If we get QE, I expect the US indices to pull away, and the indices at resistance to breakout. Furthermore, I believe it would seal the deal for my secular/solar projections into 2013 of inflation, dollar decline and commodity acceleration to a peak.

On the other hand, the Fed may choose to stop short of a new QE programme, acting to extend low rates, making an open-ended commitment to regular purchases of securities (Robin Harding), or choosing something unorthodox to tackle its main problem, jobs. Something stimulative but short of full QE could lead to a short term sell off which is then reversed on digestion.

Lastly, the Fed may choose to bide its time, carefully choosing words rather than concrete action. US leading indicators are on the rise and recent commodity price rises are likely to increase inflation down the line. If no action if forthcoming, I would expect a significant sell-off, and that sell-off would likely reverse US indices and junk bonds back  beneath their breakouts, making for bearish fakeouts.

Of the three scenarios, I rate the last (no action) as the slimmest likelihood. The Fed’s last two communications have been more heavily-hinted towards action. Plus I view things a little unorthodox: I expect the secular/solar projections to come good – I expect market participants, economists and central banks to unwittingly fulfill them (in this instance that rising sunspots make humans more speculative and pro-risk – QE is both).

There is room in equities sentiment for a push higher, and to reach Demark’s 1478 level on the Sp500. We are also in a bullish window heading into this weekend’s new moon, with negligible current geomagnetism.

I believe probability is on my side, and so am going to retain all my pro-risk positions into the FOMC (subject to OECD leading indicators not having deteriorated significantly – due noon UK time). This is the bears’ last stand. Not the bulls. A retreat in stocks and commodities would put us back into the  trading range. Whereas, a jump today in equities and precious metals and junk bonds would seal the breakouts and put pro-risk into clear air.