Stocks Surge, but Was it Enough for a Breadth Thrust?

The long-term trends and breadth charts have been net bearish since mid March. SPY, QQQ and the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP) are in long-term downtrend since early-mid March. Six of the nine breadth indicators were bearish as of mid March. The bond market and Fed policy are the wild cards.

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Today’s report will focus on some commodity-related ETFs for two reasons. First, we are in a bear market for stocks. Second, these ETFs are in uptrends. Despite these uptrends, volatility is increasing in this group as well. There is no escaping volatility these days. We will also cover Bitcoin because it is an alternative asset that is setting up.

The weight of the evidence remains bearish. Stocks are in the midst of an oversold bounce, but we have yet to see follow through strong enough to trigger a bullish breadth thrust. SPY and QQQ are in long-term downtrends and near short-term resistance levels after their oversold bounces, which creates a precarious situation. In fact, several ETFs are hitting resistance levels after oversold bounces. Some ETFs are even showing relative strength, but this really means “less weakness”. Gold remains the ultimate safe-haven and Bitcoin has a bullish failure swing working.

Even with the big rebound last week, the vast majority of stocks are below their 200 and 150 day SMAs. Only 23% of S&P 1500 stocks are above their 200-day SMAs (77% below), and only 20% are above their 150-day SMAs (80% below). New lows expanded last week with over 30% of S&P 1500 stocks hitting 52-week lows.

The weight of the evidence remains bearish for stocks and the bounce over the last four days is considered an oversold bounce. Our short-term breadth thrust indicators have yet to trigger. Until these indicators trigger, I will consider this a bear market bounce. This means negative outcomes are still more likely than positive outcomes. Resistance zones are more likely to hold and support levels are more likely to be broken. In short, risk in stocks remains above average. See this report for an update on the thrust indicators..

The analysis mode remains macro because the weight of the evidence is still bearish for stocks. Moreover, the markets are unhinged with stocks, commodities, currencies and Treasury bonds fluctuating wildly. Chaos makes chart analysis exceptionally difficult. Perhaps there is opportunity in the chaos, but the current market environment is for nimble traders with quick trigger fingers.

This market regime report weighs the evidence to determine the state of the stock market. Are we in a bull market or bear market? We start with the long-term trends for three major index ETFs (SPY,QQQ,RSP). Attention then turns to breadth indicators to measure the percentage of stocks in uptrends/downtrends and the percentage hitting

Everything, well, almost everything, fell the last four trading days. This includes the gold and US Treasury Bonds. The Dollar was hit hard, which means other currencies gained. Stocks, industrial metals, oil, crypto and foreign stocks were all down the last four days. Within the US stock market, all sector ETFs and all but two

Before looking at the current extremes, keep in mind that the weight of the evidence on the Market Regime page is bearish. We are in a bear market, and bear market rules apply. Support levels are less likely to hold and Bullish Setups are less likely to work. Stocks are extremely oversold right now: long-term and short-term. These oversold conditions could lead to a bounce, but this will be considered a bear market bounce as long as the evidence remains bearish. With volatility higher in bear markets, we can expect some sharp counter-trend bounces and erratic price action.

Stocks are in a freefall with selling pressure spreading into industrial metals and other economically sensitive commodities. There are few places to hide in bear markets, and the list of alternatives continues to shrink. Bitcoin, an alternative, is holding up relatively well since March, but

Today’s report covers the commodity, bond and Bitcoin ETFs. Gold continues to lead, but looks increasingly extended. Industrial metals are under pressure as copper turns down after a parabolic move. Agriculture is holding its breakout, while bonds are poised to break out as money moves into relative safe-havens.

Charles Dow identified three market trends. First, the primary trend is the major trend at work. This is the long-term trend. As noted in the Market Regime report, the weight of the evidence is bearish and this applies to the primary trend. The primary trend cannot be manipulated. Second

Short-term, the stock market became oversold in mid March and ripe for a bounce. Longer term, however, the weight of the evidence is bearish and the major index ETFs are in downtrends (SPY, QQQ, RSP). This means we are looking at the possibility of a counter-trend bounce within a bigger downtrend, which is not an ideal situation.