Monday, November 23, 2020

Markit Flash Composite PMI ... Christie Calls Trump Team a “National Embarrassment ... SD Dying Patients Deny COVID Exists … Coronavirus (Covid-19) … Stock Market Analysis … ETF Trading … Dow 30 Ranking

“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.

 

“The big money is not in the buying and selling. But in the waiting.” - Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway

 

“Bubbles tend to topple under their own weight. Everybody is in. The last short has covered. The last buyer has bought (or bought massive amounts of weekly calls). The decline starts and the psychology shifts from greed to complacency to worry to panic. Our working hypothesis, which might be disproven, is that September 2, 2020 was the top and the bubble has already popped.” - David Einhorn, Greenlight hedge fund.

 

MARKIT FLASH US COMPOSITE PMI (IHS Markit)

“U.S. private sector business activity rose sharply in November, as growth momentum picked up further. The overall expansion was the fastest for over five and-a-half years, as both manufacturers and service providers indicated a steeper upturn in output. The month also saw a survey record rise in employment and an unprecedented increase in prices, the latter in part linked to a record incidence of supply chain delays...“The November PMI surveys provide the first postelection snapshot of the US economy, and makes for very encouraging reading, though stronger economic growth is quite literally coming at a price. “First the good news: business activity across both manufacturing and services rose in November at the strongest rate since March 2015. The upturn reflected a further strengthening of demand, which in turn encouraged firms to take on staff at a rate not previously seen since the survey began in 2009. “However, the surge in demand and hiring has pushed prices and wages higher. Average selling prices for goods and services rose at the fastest rate yet recorded by the survey, with shortages of supplies also more widespread than at any time previously reported.”  Press release at...

https://www.markiteconomics.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/8b22f8b636e442da8bf3bba1145bacd8

My cmt: Details on the Services and Manufacturing Flash PMIs are also included in the above Press Release.

 

CHRISTIE (former NJ GOV) CALLS TRUMP TEAM NATIONAL EMBARASSMENT (CNBC)

“Listen, I’ve been a supporter of the president, I voted for him twice but elections have consequences and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen,” Christie explained...“They allege fraud outside of the courtroom but when they go inside the courtroom they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud,” Christie said, adding “you have an obligation to present the evidence, the evidence has not been presented.” Story at...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/22/chris-christie-tells-trump-its-time-to-end-legal-fights-over-election.html

 

SOUTH DAKOTA NURSE – PATIENTS DENY COVID EXISTS – RIGHT UP UNTIL DEATH (Washington  Post)

“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’” Doering said, adding that some patients prefer to believe that they have pneumonia or other diseases rather than covid-19, despite seeing their positive test results...“It is hard and sad because every hospital, every nurse, every doctor in the state is seeing the same things,” Doering told CNN. “These people are getting sick the same way, you treat them in the same way, they die in the same way, and then you do it all over again.’” Story at...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/16/south-dakota-nurse-coronavirus-deniers/

My cmt: These patients must be visiting some fake, extremist web-sites. They certainly don’t have skills in critical thinking.

 

CORONAVIRUS (NTSM)

Here’s the latest from the COVID19 Johns Hopkins website at 6:30 pm Monday. US total case numbers are on the left axis; daily numbers are on the right side of the graph with the 10-dMA of daily numbers in Green. (I averaged cases over the weekend.)


 

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS

-Monday the S&P 500 rose about 0.6% to 3578.

-VIX dropped about 4% to 22.66.

-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.855%.

 

As is often the case, and as we saw Friday, there are mixed signals today.

TOPPING INDICATORS:

-Breadth on the NYSE compared to the S&P 500 index is still warning of a correction.

-The S&P 500 is 13.7% above its 200-dMA. (Sell point is 12%.) When Sentiment is considered, the signal is also bearish.

-The Smart Money is overbought.

Most of Friday’s bear signs remain. (see Friday Blog), but now the MACD of S&P 500 price is close to a bearish crossover.

 

On the Bullish side the 2 most significant signs are: (1)The Fosback High-Low Logic Index is bullish (The number  of New-lows is very small); (2) The slope of the 40-dMA of New-highs is rising. This suggests the trend is still up.

 

The daily sum of 20 Indicators declined from +5 to Zero (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish). The 10-day smoothed sum that smooths the daily fluctuations slipped from +110 to +96. (These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late.) Most of these indicators are short-term and many are trend following.

 

The Long Term NTSM indicator ensemble switched to HOLD, 23 Nov. Now, Price is bullish; Volume, Sentiment & VIX indicators are neutral.

 

The extreme overbought market pretty much guarantees that we’ll have a pullback of some kind. The other possibility would be back and forth movement while the 200-dMA continues to move up to resolve the overbought condition. That seems less likely.

 

I’ll continue to sit out.

 

MOMENTUM ANALYSIS:

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.


*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…

http://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/exchange-traded-funds-etf-ranking.html

 

TODAY’S RANKING OF THE DOW 30 STOCKS (Ranked Daily)

Here’s the revised DOW 30 and its momentum analysis. The top ranked stock receives 100%. The rest are then ranked based on their momentum relative to the leading stock.


For more details, see NTSM Page at…

https://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/a-system-for-trading-dow-30-stocks-my_8.html

 

MONDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

Market Internals remained NEUTRAL.

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. 

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. You may wish to have a higher or lower % invested in stocks depending on your risk tolerance. 30% is a very conservative position that I re-evaluate daily, but it is appropriate for the correction.

 

As a retiree, 50% in the stock market is about fully invested for me – it is a cautious and conservative number. If I feel very confident, I might go to 60%; if this correction is deep enough, 80% would not be out of the question.