Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Consumer Price Index (CPI) … Stock Market Analysis… ETF Trading … Dow 30 Ranking

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.
 
CPI (Marketwatch)
“American households paid more in July for goods and services such as gasoline and rent to nudge inflation higher, but not enough to arouse any worries or discourage the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates again soon. The consumer price index rose 0.3% in July…” Story at…
 
ARUOBA-DIEBOLD-SCOTTI BUSINESS CONDITIONS INDEX (Philadelphia FED)
 
“The average value of the ADS index is zero. Progressively bigger positive values indicate progressively better-than-average conditions, whereas progressively more negative values indicate progressively worse-than-average conditions. The ADS index may be used to compare business conditions at different times. A value of -3.0, for example, would indicate business conditions significantly worse than at any time in either the 1990-91 or the 2001 recession, during which the ADS index never dropped below -2.0.” Additional data and details at…
My cmt: After a rough patch, it looks like ADS Business Conditions have moved back to an average condition.
 
BOND BULLS (Real Investment Advice)
“In the next few quarters, we are likely going to deal with an economic recession combined with a mean-reverting event in the market. Another 50% correction, as we have seen previously, is very possible due to the underlying debt and pension risk. While timing is always difficult, the probabilities are very high.” Commentary at…
 
MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS         
-Tuesday the S&P 500 rose about 1.5% to 2926.
-VIX dropped about 17% to 17.52.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.704%. (9-months ago the 10-yr. rate was 3.25%. The bond market seems worried about the economy.)
 
I expected some improvement in the indicators, but instead, we got more of the same with a slight decline in indicators.
 
As noted previously, we had a Hindenburg Omen on 5 August. The last prior Omen was December 2014.  That one preceded a long up and down period before a 12% correction bottom more than 6-months later.
 
The McClellan Oscillator remained negative today so the Hindenburg Omen we got last Monday remains in effect. Basically, this indicator is still calling for a crash, or a big drop.
 
The long-term and Short-term Fosback indicators are still giving a sell-signal, “sharp-drop” warning. Both, 52-week, new-highs and new-lows are too high and have been for an extended period.
 
Breadth vs the S&P 500 is still giving a warning that the Index is stretched too far ahead of advancing stocks on the NYSE (breadth). 
 
MACD of Breadth remained slightly bullish today. We’ll watch this further.  It does flip flop some during corrections on a strong-advance, reflex rallies. If it stays bullish, we’ll need to pay attention.
 
MACD of S&P 500 price remains negative.
 
The Smart Money is still selling based on late-day action over the last 10-days suggesting a downtrend is in place, but the indicator is flattening and may be reversing upward.
 
Overall, my daily sum of 20 Indicators slipped from -9 to -10 (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish) while the 10-day smoothed version that negates the daily fluctuations declined from -80 to -90. (These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late.) Most of these indicators are short-term.
 
We’ve now seen a pretty good cluster of -3 Top / Bottom Indicator readings with one -4 reading, last week and another today.  In the past this has occurred almost exclusively during corrections. This further suggests that this pullback is not over. In addition, indicators actually deteriorated today.
 
Until we see further evidence, it still looks like we are headed down. The test coming at 2845 (the recent low) will be an important point to watch. Perhaps the pullback will end there? My guess is, “Probably not,” but we won’t know until we get there. Could the correction be over? Yes, and we’ll be watching that possibility too.
 
TOP / BOTTOM INDICATOR SCALE OF 1 TO 10 (Zero is a neutral reading.)
Today’s Reading: -4      
- Breadth vs the S&P 500 was negative; both Long-term and Short-term Fosback Logic Index indicators were bearish; the Money Trend indicator is reaching severe lows compared to the S&P 500.
- Most Recent Day with a value other than Zero: -3 on 12 Augcent low)
(1) +10 Max Bullish / -10 Max Bearish)
(2) -4 or below is a Sell sign. +4 or better is a Buy Sign.
 
MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:
Just a reminder…During corrections, momentum is not giving a very accurate picture. Utilities will generally outperform as will similar Dow stocks, like Verizon. Momentum here is a sort-term call.
 
TODAY’S RANKING OF  15 ETFs (Ranked Daily)
 
The top ranked ETF receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading ETF.  While momentum isn’t stock performance per se, momentum is closely related to stock performance. For example, over the 4-months from Oct thru mid-February 2016, the number 1 ranked Financials (XLF) outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 20%. In 2017 Technology (XLK) was ranked in the top 3 Momentum Plays for 52% of all trading days in 2017 (if I counted correctly.) XLK was up 35% on the year while the S&P 500 was up 18%.
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
 
TODAY’S RANKING OF THE DOW 30 STOCKS (Ranked Daily)
The top ranked stock receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading stock.
*I rank the Dow 30 similarly to the ETF ranking system. For more details, see NTSM Page at…
 
TUESDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)
Market Internals declined to NEGATIVE on the market.
Market Internals are a decent trend-following analysis of current market action but should not be used alone for short term trading. They are usually right, but they are often late.  They are most useful when they diverge from the Index.  In 2014, using these internals alone would have made a 9% return vs. 13% for the S&P 500 (in on Positive, out on Negative – no shorting).
 
Using the Short-term indicator in 2018 in SPY would have made a 5% gain instead of a 6% loss for buy-and-hold. The methodology was Buy on a POSITIVE indication and Sell on a NEGATIVE indication and stay out until the next POSITIVE indication. The back-test included 13-buys and 13-sells, or a trade every 2-weeks on average.  
 
My current stock allocation is about 30% invested in stocks as of 5 August 2019.
 
INTERMEDIATE / LONG-TERM INDICATOR
Tuesday, the Panic Indicator and VOLUME indicators were negative. The SENTIMENT, VIX and PRICE Indicators were neutral. Overall, the Long-Term Indicator remains SELL. It was first “Sell” on 5 August.