It was a week full of gaps, dips and rebounds. For example, SPY gapped down on Tuesday and tested its 50-day SMA on Wednesday. An inside day formed as the ETF rebounded on Thursday and another gap formed on Friday as SPY surged into Tuesday’s gap zone. Several tech related ETFs formed harami candlestick patterns near support and gapped up on Friday. These gaps, while short-term

I covered the stock market environment on Tuesday and Thursday because it seemed timely given price action. This commentary will focus on the macro picture with analysis for oil, gold, gold miners, silver and bonds. Gold looks bullish and we have a new trend signal in the Gold Miners ETF. Copper looks even more

Tech and high-growth took another beating on Monday and followed through on last week’s breakdowns. Even though other areas are still holding up, many non-tech stocks and ETFs closed lower after being up during the day. The chart below shows the Home Construction ETF (ITB), Regional Bank ETF (KRE),

It was another week and another new high for SPY and the old economy. Outside of tech and high-growth, strength in the S&P 500 is broad as the S&P 500 Equal-weight ETF also hit a new high. ETFs related to industrials, finance, materials, consumer staples, transports, healthcare, energy, housing, steel, copper, and uranium hit

The broad market environment (market regime) remains bullish. The Composite Breadth Model is bullish and the key inputs (breadth indicators) support this bull market. Even though QQQ dipped the last two weeks and IWM stalled since mid February (blue shading), SPY hit a new high recently and all three remain well above their rising 200-day SMAs (red lines).

A benchmark high/low is a price peak/trough that we can use to compare performance. ETFs that break above benchmark highs, such as the mid March highs, show relative strength. ETFs that fail to exceed these highs show relative weakness. ETFs that break below benchmark lows, such as the late April lows, show relative weakness. ETFs that hold these lows show relative strength.

The stock market has been churning the last few weeks with indecisive price action producing a fair number of whipsaws and head fakes. The old school ETFs associated with industrials, materials, REITs, housing, steel, metals and agriculture continue to lead. The high-beta high-flyers of 2020 continue to lag and many did not even make it back above

The bulk of the evidence remains bullish for stocks, but we are seeing a short-term non-confirmation from QQQ and continued relative weakness in IWM. SPY remains the leader of the group with a new high this week. However, the current leg up is also getting quite extended because we have not seen a decent correction in six months. Even though the risk appetite returned to QQQ and

It has been a wild ride for the Russell 2000 Growth ETF (IWO) and Nasdaq 100 Next Gen ETF (QQQJ) over the last two weeks as they went from emerging leaders to overreaction laggards and back to leading. The lagging part occurred last Tuesday when stocks fell sharply during the day. This whipsaw action is looking more like short-term noise because these two are leading again with strong recoveries.

After getting derailed with a curve ball on Tuesday, the bulls rebounded stocks ended the week on a high note. Again, a wide array of ETFs recorded fresh 52-week highs and there are plenty of strong groups in the stock market. This week we are seeing a possible return to growth, clean energy and China

The bulk of the evidence remains bullish for stocks, but some yellow flags are starting to appear. Yellow flags argue for some caution and are not outright bearish. For example, defensive sectors are leading, but the offensive sectors are still holding up, even though they are lagging. Small-caps are

The Composite Breadth Model remains bullish and this means we are still in a bull market environment. Nevertheless, the odds for a correction are building and we are now seeing a dramatic move away from small-caps, which is reflected in some key breadth metrics. I will show a new twist on

I am always interested in themes that can drive secular trends. These include electronic payments, electric vehicles, clean energy, marijuana and such. These themes involve narratives and I am always careful with narratives. We all love a good story and stories help sell us

SPY hit yet another new high, nine sector SPDRs hit new highs and the breadth indicators show broad strength within this large-cap benchmark. QQQ also hit a new high as large-cap techs extended their rebound. Small-caps and small-cap growth remain the laggards, but their cups are still half full

Large-caps and large-cap techs ripped higher the last five-six weeks with SPY and QQQ hitting new highs. The Technology SPDR and Consumer Discretionary SPDR are leading the charge among the sectors with 13+ percent gains. Keep in mind that Amazon accounts for 23.5% of XLY and Tesla accounts for 14.45%. These two are not exactly pure plays in the

Equity-related ETFs continued strong this week with large-cap techs leading the way here in April. SPY also hit a new high, but small-caps are lagging as IWM stalls. Bank and energy related ETFs are also dragging their feet a little. Relative weakness is not a concern because IWM, KRE and XES

The S&P 500 SPDR hit a new high to affirm the bull market and seven sector SPDRs joined the new high parade (XLK, XLY, XLC, XLI, XLB, XLRE, XLP). The Finance SPDR (XLF) and Healthcare SPDR (XLV) are within 2% of 52-week highs. Strength within the S&P 500 is broad and supportive of a bull market. Today’s report will show QQQ close to a new high and IWM struggling, but still bullish. Technology and Consumer Discretionary

The S&P 500 hit a new all time high this week and large-cap techs perked up with QQQ surging. Small-caps are lagging, but IWM is not really bearish. The Composite Breadth Model remains firmly bullish with the short-term indicators for the S&P 500 outpacing those in the S&P 1500. Yield spreads narrowed further this week, while the Fed balance sheet contracted a little.

The S&P 500 SPDR hit a new high to affirm the bull market and three sectors confirmed this new high. The Consumer Staples SPDR, Materials SPDR and Industrials SPDR recorded new highs at some point this week. Even though the other big sectors did not hit new highs this week, they are in uptrends and within three percent of new highs. These include the Technology SPDR

Today’s commentary will focus on three ARK ETFs. Overall, there are eight ARK ETFs that capture cutting-edge technology or innovation in several areas. Six of the eight have been trading for more than three years. The ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) started trading in February 2019 and the ARK Space Exploration ETF

Today’s video starts with the corrections in QQQ and IWM, and the resilience in SPY. Techs started the corrective process and small-caps joined this week, but large-caps in the S&P 500 remain immune. Nevertheless, QQQ has a flag breakout working and shows some short-term relative strength. Stocks could find another wind from two bullish seasonal

The market regime remains bullish, but we are seeing corrective price action over the last few months. The Nasdaq 100 ETF started it all off with a sharp decline from mid February to early March. IWM got involved this week with its biggest fourth decline greater than 9% since March 2020. SPY has largely avoided the correction fray and remains the strongest of the big three.

This commentary was originally posted on Wednesday, March 17th, in PDF format. Today I am replacing the PDF with chart images on a web page. Some of the text has been adjusted, but the commentary/charts are largely the same as on Wednesday. These charts cover the massive moves in tech-growth ETFs over the past year, the interest rate debate, Chinese ETFs firming in reversal zones and the Brazil ETFs surging off the 200-day.

QQQ and the tech-related ETFs triggered flag breakouts last week and these breakouts were challenged with a pullback this week. Some breakouts failed (IGV) and some are at their moment of truth (IPAY). Today’s video focuses on trailing stops and breakout zones for several of these.

We finally got a bit of a shake up this week as oil fell sharply on Thursday. We also saw big declines in the Nasdaq 100 ETF and Russell 2000 ETF. It was basically triple shock Thursday with small-caps, large-techs and oil getting hit hard. Tech and growth related ETFs were also hit hard as money moved out of the high-beta end of the market.

Stocks perked up this week and we saw flag breakouts in several ETFs. Small-caps led the charge with IWM hitting a new high. QQQ even rebounded with a breakout, but is still lagging year-to-date. Strategically, the Composite Breadth Model remains in bull market mode. Tactically, the breakouts are holding and we will show how to monitor SPY and QQQ going forward. It was also a big week for Utilities and Consumer Staples,

SPY and IWM recorded new highs this week and continue to lead the broader market. Even though QQQ and XLK are underperforming this year, the old school sectors held strong and propped up SPY. After short pullbacks into early March, stocks caught a bid this week and we are seeing flag breakouts in

Despite an increase in intraday volatility the last few weeks, the recent pullback is actually quite tame, especially for the Russell 2000 ETF and S&P 500 SPDR. QQQ bore the brunt of selling pressure and the Nasdaq 100 Breadth Thrust Model turned bearish. I am not concerned with this signal because the S&P 1500 Thrust Model remains bullish. Today’s video will show backtest results

The long-term evidence remains bullish, but the major index ETFs have moved into corrective mode of varying degrees. The S&P 500 SPDR and Russell 2000 ETF are in the midst of shallow pullbacks, while the Nasdaq 100 ETF is leading the way lower with a sharp pullback. Downside participation was so strong in the Nasdaq 100 that the Breadth Thrust