Weekend Video – Weight of Evidence is Bearish, Defensive Groups Shine, Some Commodities Go Parabolic (Premium)

The Composite Breadth Model is bearish so I am focused on ETFs that are not correlated to stocks (commodities), ETFs that are defensive (staples, utilities) and ETFs that are perhaps less correlated to stocks (agribusiness, steel, defense). Volatility is

The Composite Breadth Model remains bearish and the S&P 500 SPDR is in a downtrend since the January breakdown. The S&P SmallCap 600 SPDR (IJR) held up a little better than SPY in January-February, but remains short of a resistance breakout that would negate the January breakdown. In short, the trends

The Composite Breadth Model flipped back to bearish this week as the S&P 500 led the broad market lower. New lows expanded and some 60% of stocks in the S&P 1500 are below their 200-day SMAs. Throw in widening yield spreads and the Market Regime is clearly

The stock market is as divided as ever with the pockets of weakness at the risk-on end. Risk-off ETFs and commodity-related ETFs are performing the best right now. Finance-related ETFs are also holding their own as the 10-yr Treasury Yield exceeds 2%. There are some

The Composite Breadth Model is net bullish because the 5-day SMA for the S&P 500 is above the 200-day SMA. Even so, some 55% of S&P 500 stocks are below their 200-day SMAs and fewer than 40% of mid-caps and small-caps are above their 200-day SMAs. There are more long-term downtrends than

February is the month of the big bounce. As is normal after a big decline, names that led the way lower and fell the most are getting the biggest bounces. Most of the ETFs with the biggest bounces were in downtrends already and these are still considered oversold bounces within downtrends.

Strength within the S&P 500 flipped the Composite Breadth Model bullish this week, but the %Above 200-day SMA and High-Low Percent indicators show more pockets of weakness than strength in the broader market (S&P 1500). The Trend Composite is bearish for all

Small-caps were the talk of the town in mid November as they broke out of a seven month range and the skies opened up. Volatility then reared its ugly head in late November when the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) fell some 12 percent from a new high. IWM continued lower in January and hit a 52-week low. The Russell 2000 Growth ETF (IWO) led the way as money fled high-beta stocks and ETFs.

January was a rough month for stocks so far as QQQ fell 11.6% and IWM fell 12.2%. SPY and the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP) held up much better with declines of around 6%. Again, we are seeing more weakness in mid-caps, small-caps

There were lots of downtrend signals this past week and over the past month. Selling pressure expanded and broadening participation on the downside was enough to push the Composite Breadth Model back into bear market mode. Note that I will update the Market Regime page on Friday morning. For now, the pickings are slim among the equity-related ETFs

The Composite Breadth Model has yet to trigger bearish as stocks recovered on Monday and closed strong. Despite this reversal, the technical damage has already been done to several big sectors and key industry group ETFs. Even so, the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP) managed to hold its