Thursday, March 31, 2022

Best DOW Stocks ... Best ETFs … Stock Market Analysis ... Personal Income / Spending ... PCE Prices ... Jobless Claims ... Chicago PMI

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

 

“Faced with a combination of record speculative extremes and deteriorating speculative conditions, investors may want to remember that the best time to panic is before everyone else does.” – John Hussman, Phd.

 

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

 

“Faced with a combination of record speculative extremes and deteriorating speculative conditions, investors may want to remember that the best time to panic is before everyone else does.” – John Hussman, Phd.

 

PERSONAL SPENDING / INCOME (fxstreet)

“Personal Income in the US rose by 0.5% MoM in February whist Personal Spending rose by 0.2%, the latest data release by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Department of Commerce showed on Thursday. The latter thus came in in line with the expected gain of 0.5% MoM, while the former came in lower versus the expected MoM gain of 0.5%.” Story at...

https://www.fxstreet.com/news/us-personal-income-rises-05-mom-in-february-vs-05-exp-personal-spending-rises-02-mom-vs-05-exp-202203311232

 

PCE PRICES (BEA)

“The PCE price index for February increased 6.4 percent from one year ago, reflecting increases in both goods and services...Energy prices increased 25.7 percent while food prices increased 8.0 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index for February increased 5.4 percent from one year ago.” Story at...

https://www.bea.gov/news/2022/personal-income-and-outlays-february-2022

 

JOBLESS CLAIMS (Yahoo Finance)

“Initial unemployment claims rose modestly after reaching a 50-year low as employers continue to show reluctance in reducing their workforces in the current competitive labor market...Initial jobless claims, week ended March 26: 202,000 vs. 196,000 expected...” Story at...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-march-26-2022-192349945.html

 

CHICAGO PMI (MarketPulse)

“Chicago PMI came in better-than-expected at 62.9, a beat of the 57.0 estimate and 56.3 prior reading. The Chicago PMI was a nice rebound and provides some optimism away from all the doom and gloom from slowdowns and runaway inflation.” Story at...

https://www.marketpulse.com/20220331/worst-quarter-stocks-two-years-us-data-walgreens-earnings-bitcoin-lower/

 

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS

-Thursday the S&P 500 dropped about 1.6% to 4530.

-VIX rose about 6% to 20.56.

-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.363%.

 

I think the correction is over, but not everyone agrees so I’ll keep the pullback data for a while longer.

 

PULLBACK DATA:

If the correction has ended:

-Drop from Top: 13% (Avg.= 13% for non-crash pullbacks)

-Days from Top to Bottom: 48-days. (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

 

Currently:

Days since top: 61 (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

Drop from Top: Now 5.5%. Max at close: 13%

The S&P 500 is 1% ABOVE its 200-dMA & 2.7% ABOVE its 50-dMA.

 

TODAY’S COMMENT:


Man, that is a nasty looking close on today’s chart. Let’s hope that negativism doesn’t carry over to Friday.  It is the last day of the quarter so there may be a lot of buying and selling associated with positioning for the future – so called window dressing. For that reason, today’s action may not be representative.

 

Today was a distribution day. Investopedia says, “’Distribution days’ is a term related to distribution stock in the sense that heavy institutional selling of shares is taking place. A distribution day, technically speaking, occurs when major market indexes fall 0.2% or more on volume that is higher than the previous trading day. A string of these days together is called distribution days and is often associated with signs of a market top.” Discussion at...

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/distribution-stock.asp#:~:text=Distribution%20days%20is%20a%20term,than%20the%20previous%20trading%20day.

One Distribution Day alone doesn’t signal anything. We’d need to see more than 5 in 5-weeks, or less, before I’d be concerned. This may be another sign of end-of-quarter adjusting.

 

Today was a statistically significant down-day. That just means that the price-volume move exceeded my statistical parameters. Statistics show that a statistically-significant, down-day is followed by an up-day about 60% of the time. So perhaps Friday will be more bullish. 

 

The 40-dMA of new-highs is improving.  It suggests that, for now, the overall trend in the stock market is still up.

 

The daily sum of 20 Indicators remained +5 (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish); the 10-day smoothed sum that smooths the daily fluctuations declined from +128 to +122 (The trend direction is more important than the actual number for the 10-day value.) These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late. Most of these indicators are short-term so they tend to bounce around a lot.

 

The Long Term NTSM indicator ensemble remained BUY: PRICE & VOLUME, are Bullish; VIX & SENTIMENT are hold.

 

I am a Bull, but I’ll be quick to reduce stock holdings if indicators warrant it.

 

BEST ETFs - 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

 

BEST DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM 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

 

THURSDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

My basket of Market Internals remained HOLD.

 

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. 

 

 


My stock-allocation in the portfolio is now about 60% invested in stocks. This is above my “normal” fully invested stock-allocation of 50%.

 

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here. If I can see a definitive bottom, I’ll add a lot more stocks to the portfolio using an S&P 500 ETF.

 

You may wish to have a higher or lower % invested in stocks depending on your risk tolerance. 50% is a conservative position that I consider fully invested for most retirees.

 

As a general rule, some suggest that the % of portfolio invested in the stock market should be one’s age subtracted from 100.  So, a 30-year-old person would have 70% of the portfolio in stocks, stock mutual funds and/or stock ETFs.  That’s ok, but for older investors, I usually don’t recommend keeping less than 50% invested in stocks (as a fully invested position) since most people need some growth in the portfolio to keep up with inflation.

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Best DOW Stocks ... Best ETFs … Stock Market Analysis ... ADP Employment ... GDP ... EIA Crude Oil Inventories

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

 

“Faced with a combination of record speculative extremes and deteriorating speculative conditions, investors may want to remember that the best time to panic is before everyone else does.” – John Hussman, Phd.

 

I got busy today and almost forgot to post. Here’s today’s report...

 

ADP EMPLOYMENT CHANGE (ADP)

“Private sector employment increased by 455,000 jobs from February to March according to the March ADP® National Employment ReportTM...“Job growth was broad-based across sectors in March, contributing to the nearly 1.5 million jobs added for the first quarter in 2022,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Businesses are hiring, specifically among the service providers which had the most ground to make up due to early pandemic losses. However, a tight labor supply remains an obstacle for continued growth in consumer-facing industries.” ADP report at...

https://adpemploymentreport.com/2022/March/NER/docs/ADP-NATIONAL-EMPLOYMENT-REPORT-March2022-Final-Press-Release.pdf

 

GDP (Yahoo Finance)

“The real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and the economy grew at a 2.3% rate in the third quarter.” Story at...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gdp-downgraded-slightly-back-6-165245312.html

 

EIA CRUDE OIL INVENTORIES (EIA)

“U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 3.4 million barrels from the previous week. At 409.9 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 14% below the five-year average for this time of year.”  Press release at...

https://ir.eia.gov/wpsr/wpsrsummary.pdf

Low and falling inventories suggest higher prices.  

 

BOND MARKET INVERSIONS (RIA)

“Every time the 10/2 curve inverts, market participants come out with a long list of reasons why the curve’s slope tells us little about the current environment and should have no correlation with a recession. We all know what happens subsequently.” - Ed Al-Hussainy of Columbia Threadneedle.

 

“For the past half-century or so, what happens subsequently is a recession...

...Currently, only 10% of the 10-spreads we track are inverted. As such, there is no reason to become overly defensive just yet. But you should be at least paying attention.” – Lance Roberts, RIA.

Chart and commentary at...

https://realinvestmentadvice.com/inverted-yield-curve-history-should-worry-bulls/

Good discussion on Yield Curve Inversion at the Real Investment link above.

 

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS

-Wednesday the S&P 500 dropped about 0.6% to 4602.

-VIX rose about 2% to 18.90.

-The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.338%.

 

I think the correction is over, but not everyone agrees so I’ll keep the pullback data for a while longer.

 

PULLBACK DATA:

If the correction has ended:

-Drop from Top: 13% (Avg.= 13% for non-crash pullbacks)

-Days from Top to Bottom: 48-days. (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

 

Currently:

Days since top: 60 (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

Drop from Top: Now 2.5%. Max at close: 13%

The S&P 500 is 2.7% ABOVE its 200-dMA & 4.3% ABOVE its 50-dMA.

 

TODAY’S COMMENT:

Good news today – new-52-week lows improved a lot.  There were only 25 new-lows today while there were 120 new-highs. The Fosback Hi-Lo Logic Index (see Friday’s blog) responded by stepping away from the cliff so that there is more breathing room.  I’ll still be watching since the indicator is not out of the woods yet, but the Fosback Hi-Low Logic index started moving in a less bearish direction. (I won’t call it bullish yet – it’s still much closer to a sell-signal than a buy-signal.

 

Currently, none of my top-indicators are warning of a top. 28 of the 30 Dow stocks have been up over the last 10-days.  That’s very bullish. I suspect that the markets can go higher before they experience a corrective pullback. I don’t expect anything big. Longer term indicators remain very bullish. In the near term, when Bollinger Bands and RSI are both overbought, we can expect a pullback maybe in the 3-5% range. A top would be most likely to happen on a big move up, say greater than 1.6%-2% up.

 

The daily sum of 20 Indicators declined from +16 to +5 (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish); the 10-day smoothed sum that smooths the daily fluctuations improved from +124 to +128 (The trend direction is more important than the actual number for the 10-day value.) These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late. Most of these indicators are short-term so they tend to bounce around a lot.

 

The Long Term NTSM indicator ensemble remained BUY: PRICE & VOLUME, are Bullish; VIX & SENTIMENT are hold.

 

I am a Bull, but I’ll be quick to reduce stock holdings if indicators warrant it.

 

BEST ETFs - 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

 

BEST DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM 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

 

WEDNESDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

My basket of Market Internals slipped to HOLD.

 

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. 

 

 


My stock-allocation in the portfolio is now about 60% invested in stocks. This is above my “normal” fully invested stock-allocation of 50%.

 

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here. If I can see a definitive bottom, I’ll add a lot more stocks to the portfolio using an S&P 500 ETF.

 

You may wish to have a higher or lower % invested in stocks depending on your risk tolerance. 50% is a conservative position that I consider fully invested for most retirees.

 

As a general rule, some suggest that the % of portfolio invested in the stock market should be one’s age subtracted from 100.  So, a 30-year-old person would have 70% of the portfolio in stocks, stock mutual funds and/or stock ETFs.  That’s ok, but for older investors, I usually don’t recommend keeping less than 50% invested in stocks (as a fully invested position) since most people need some growth in the portfolio to keep up with inflation.

 

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Best DOW Stocks ... Best ETFs … Stock Market Analysis ... Consumer Confidence ... JOLTS – Job Openings ... Quit While You’re Ahead

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

 

“Faced with a combination of record speculative extremes and deteriorating speculative conditions, investors may want to remember that the best time to panic is before everyone else does.” – John Hussman, Phd.

 

“You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money when the dealer isn’t looking”.– Albert Einstein

 

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (Conference Board)

“The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® increased slightly in March, after a decrease in February. The Index now stands at 107.2 (1985=100), up from 105.7 in February... consumer confidence continues to be supported by strong employment growth and thus has been holding up remarkably well despite geopolitical uncertainties and expectations for inflation over the next 12 months reaching 7.9 percent—an all-time high. However, these headwinds are expected to persist in the short term and may potentially dampen confidence as well as cool spending further in the months ahead.” Press release at...

https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence

 

JOLTS – JOB OPENINGS (BLS)

“The number of job openings was little changed at 11.3 million on the last business day of February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires edged up to 6.7 million while total separations were little changed at 6.1 million. Within separations, the quits rate was little changed at 2.9 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate was unchanged at 0.9 percent.” Press release at...

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf

As of February 2022, there are 6.3 million unemployed persons, so there are nearly 2 jobs for each of those unemployed.

 

QUIT WHILE YOU’RE AHEAD (Hussman Funds)

“From the perspective of our own value-conscious, historically-informed, full-cycle investment discipline, valuations do not provide an environment for “intelligent investment” here, nor do market internals provide an environment for “intelligent speculation.” Aside from very minor tactical shifts, the main opportunity that investors have in the current environment is the opportunity for baseless gambling...for investors who insist on playing anyway, the last useful resort is to follow the advice of Baltasar Gracián y Morales: “Quit while you’re ahead. All the best gamblers do.” – John Hussman, PhD.  Commentary at...

https://www.hussmanfunds.com/comment/mc220325/

 

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS

-Tuesday the S&P 500 rose about 1.2% to 4631.

-VIX fell about 4% to 18.90.

-The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.401%.

 

I think the correction is over, but not everyone agrees so I’ll keep the pullback data for a while longer.

 

PULLBACK DATA:

If the correction has ended:

-Drop from Top: 13% (Avg.= 13% for non-crash pullbacks)

-Days from Top to Bottom: 48-days. (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

 

Currently:

Days since top: 59 (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

Drop from Top: Now 3.4%. Max at close: 13%

The S&P 500 is 3.4% ABOVE its 200-dMA & 5% ABOVE its 50-dMA. (Yes, the Death Cross is still in effect.  The 50-dMA is below the 200-dMA. It looks like the spread between the 200-dMA and the 50-dMA has reached its maximum. From here, the spread should begin to decrease and lead to a bullish “Golden Cross”. If it doesn’t, the stock market is in trouble.  

 

TODAY’S COMMENT:

Not much change from yesterday...RSI (Relative Strength Index) is nearly overbought. Bollinger Bands are close to overbought, but not there yet. The S&P 500 has been up 8 days out of the last 10.  That is close to an overbought indication too. The Fosback Hi-Lo Logic Index (see Friday’s blog) continues to creep towards a sell signal that Fosback said predicted a “crash”.

 

Currently, none of my top-indicators are warning of a top.

 

The daily sum of 20 Indicators improved from +15 to +16 (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish); the 10-day smoothed sum that smooths the daily fluctuations improved from +108 to +124 (The trend direction is more important than the actual number for the 10-day value.) These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late. Most of these indicators are short-term so they tend to bounce around a lot.

 

The Long Term NTSM indicator ensemble remained BUY: PRICE, VOLUME, VIX & are Bullish; SENTIMENT was hold.

 

I remain a Bull; but I am a cautious-Bull. There is a crash coming; 2022...2023? I don’t know, but it is probably sooner than most expect.

 

BEST ETFs - 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

 

BEST DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM 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

 

TUESDAY MARKET INTERNALS (NYSE DATA)

My basket of Market Internals remained BUY.

 

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. 

 

 

My stock-allocation in the portfolio is now about 60% invested in stocks. This is above my “normal” fully invested stock-allocation of 50%.

 

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here. If I can see a definitive bottom, I’ll add a lot more stocks to the portfolio using an S&P 500 ETF.

 

You may wish to have a higher or lower % invested in stocks depending on your risk tolerance. 50% is a conservative position that I consider fully invested for most retirees.

 

As a general rule, some suggest that the % of portfolio invested in the stock market should be one’s age subtracted from 100.  So, a 30-year-old person would have 70% of the portfolio in stocks, stock mutual funds and/or stock ETFs.  That’s ok, but for older investors, I usually don’t recommend keeping less than 50% invested in stocks (as a fully invested position) since most people need some growth in the portfolio to keep up with inflation.

Monday, March 28, 2022

Best DOW Stocks ... Best ETFs … Stock Market Analysis ...

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

 

“Faced with a combination of record speculative extremes and deteriorating speculative conditions, investors may want to remember that the best time to panic is before everyone else does.” – John Hussman, Phd.

 

Here’s analysis and commentary on the stock market for Friday, 25 March 2022.

 

MARKET REPORT / ANALYSIS

-Monday the S&P 500 rose about 0.7% to 4576.

-VIX fell about 6% to 19.63.

-The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.440%.

 

I think the correction is over, but not everyone agrees so I’ll keep the pullback data for a while longer.

 

PULLBACK DATA:

If the correction has ended:

-Drop from Top: 13% (Avg.= 13% for non-crash pullbacks)

-Days from Top to Bottom: 48-days. (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

 

Currently:

Days since top: 58 (Avg= 30 days top to bottom for corrections <10%; 60 days top to bottom for larger, non-crash pullbacks)

Drop from Top: Now 4.6%. Max at close: 13%

The S&P 500 is 2.2% ABOVE its 200-dMA & 3.7% ABOVE its 50-dMA.

 

TODAY’S COMMENT:

RSI (Relative Strength Index) is nearly overbought.  I use this indicator along with Bollinger Bands.  They are currently getting close to overbought, but not there yet. The Fosback Hi-Lo Logic Index (see yesterday’s blog) continues to creep towards a sell signal that Fosback said predicted a “crash”. Most other indicators are positive, so it will be interesting to see if other indicators confirm the Fosback sell-signal, if it gets there. Currently, none of my indicators are warning of a top.

 

The S&P 500 has been up 8 days out of the last 10.  That is close to an overbought indication too.  It appears that this rally may not make a new high before it fails, i.e., my prediction that the Index would make a new high may be in jeopardy.  I won’t predict what the indicators will do. We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

The daily sum of 20 Indicators improved from +13 to +15 (a positive number is bullish; negatives are bearish); the 10-day smoothed sum that smooths the daily fluctuations improved from +90 to +108 (The trend direction is more important than the actual number for the 10-day value.) These numbers sometimes change after I post the blog based on data that comes in late. Most of these indicators are short-term so they tend to bounce around a lot.

 

The Long Term NTSM indicator ensemble remained BUY: PRICE, VOLUME, VIX & are Bullish; SENTIMENT was hold.

 

I remain a Bull, but I am getting more cautious. 

 

BEST ETFs - 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


BEST DOW STOCKS - TODAY’S MOMENTUM 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)

My basket of Market Internals remained BUY.

 

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. 

 

 

My stock-allocation in the portfolio is now about 60% invested in stocks. This is above my “normal” fully invested stock-allocation of 50%.

 

I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here. If I can see a definitive bottom, I’ll add a lot more stocks to the portfolio using an S&P 500 ETF.

 

You may wish to have a higher or lower % invested in stocks depending on your risk tolerance. 50% is a conservative position that I consider fully invested for most retirees.

 

As a general rule, some suggest that the % of portfolio invested in the stock market should be one’s age subtracted from 100.  So, a 30-year-old person would have 70% of the portfolio in stocks, stock mutual funds and/or stock ETFs.  That’s ok, but for older investors, I usually don’t recommend keeping less than 50% invested in stocks (as a fully invested position) since most people need some growth in the portfolio to keep up with inflation.