U.S. Stock Market Stalls Near a Double Peak

The U.S. stock market stalled early this week as earnings started to hit. A number of news and other items are pending with earnings just starting to roll in. There have been some big numbers posted from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Yet, the markets have reacted rather muted to these blowout revenues.

We believe this is a technical “Double Top” set up in the making. The NASDAQ has been much weaker than the S&P and the Dow Industrials. We believe the US stock market is reacting to the reality of earnings and forward guidance after the recent rally in price levels over the past 9+ weeks. If we are correct and this Double-Top pushes price levels lower, then this technical resistance level may become the price ceiling headed into Q3 and Q4 2020.

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Hate Mail, Crumbling Factories, and Sinking Stocks

By Tony Sagami 

The bulls are mad at me. I’ve been heavily beating the bear market drum in this column since the spring. The S&P 500, by the way, peaked on May 21, and this column has been generating a rising stream of hate mail from the bulls as the stock market has dropped. My hate mail falls into two general categories: (1) you are wrong, and/or (2) you are stupid.

Well, I may not be the sharpest tool in the Wall Street shed, but I haven’t been wrong about where the stock market was headed. This column, however, isn’t about me. It’s about protecting and growing your wealth—and that’s why I have been so forceful about the rising dangers the stock market is facing.

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One of the themes I’ve repeatedly covered in this column is the rapidly deteriorating health of the two most basic economic building blocks of the American economy: the “makers” (see August 25 column) and the “takers” (see July 14 and August 4 columns).

There are thousands of economic and business statistics you can look at to gauge the health of the US economy, but at the economic roots of any developed country is the prosperity of its factories (makers) and transportation companies (takers) delivering those goods to stores.

This week, let’s look at the latest evidence confirming the piss poor health of American factories.

Factory Fact #1: The Institute for Supply Management released its latest survey results, which showed a drop to 51.1 in August, a decline from 52.7 in July, below the 52.5 Wall Street forecast, and the weakest reading since April 2009.

NOTE: The ISM survey shows that raw-materials prices dropped for 10 months in a row. If you own commodity stocks—such as copper, oil, aluminum, or gold—you should consider how falling raw materials prices will affect the profits of those companies.

Factory Fact #2: Despite all the crowing from Washington DC about the improving economy, US manufacturing output is still worse today than it was before the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis, according to the Federal Reserve.

Factory Fact #3: Business inventories increased at the fastest back to back quarterly rate on record. Inventories increased 0.8% in Q2, following a 0.3% increase in Q1, and now sit at $586 billion. That’s a 5.4% year over year increase!

Remember, there are two reasons why businesses accumulate inventory:

• Business owners are so optimistic about the future that they intentionally accumulate inventory to accommodate an upcoming avalanche of orders.

OR

• Business is so bad that inventory is starting to involuntarily pile up from the lack of sales.

Factory Fact #4: The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), a trade association for US manufacturers, is none too optimistic about the state of American manufacturing.
The reason for the pessimism is simple: US manufacturers are struggling.

• U.S. manufactured exports decreased by 2% to $298 billion in the second quarter, as compared with 2014.

• The US deficit in manufacturing rose by $21 billion, or 15%, compared with the second quarter of 2014.

“The US $48 billion deficit increase in the first half of the year equates to a loss of 300,000 trade related American manufacturing jobs, and the deficit is on track for a loss of 500,000 or more jobs for the calendar year,” said Ernest Preeg of MAPI.

So what does all this mean?

When I connect those dots, it tells me that American manufacturers are struggling. Really struggling.
Take a look at the Dow Jones US Industrials Index, which peaked in February and started to drop well ahead of the August market meltdown.

You know what’s really nuts? The P/E ratio for this struggling sector is almost 19 times earnings and 3.3 times book value!

Is there a way to profit from this slowdown of American factories? You bet there is.

Take a look at the ProShares UltraShort Industrials ETF (SIJ). This ETF is designed to deliver two times the inverse (-2x) of the daily performance of the Dow Jones US Industrials Index. To be fair, I should disclose that my Rational Bear subscribers have owned this ETF since June 16, 2015, and are sitting on close to a 15% gain.

Critics could say that I am “talking up my book,” but I instead see it as “eating my own cooking.” My advice in this column isn’t theoretical—we put real money behind my convictions. That doesn’t mean you should rush out and buy this ETF tomorrow morning. As always, timing is everything, so I suggest you wait for my buy signal.

But make no mistake, American “makers” are doing very poorly, and that’s a reliable warning sign of bigger economic problems.

Tony Sagami

30 year market expert Tony Sagami leads the Yield Shark and Rational Bear advisories at Mauldin Economics. To learn more about Yield Shark and how it helps you maximize dividend income, click here.

To learn more about Rational Bear and how you can use it to benefit from falling stocks and sectors, click here.

The article Connecting the Dots: Hate Mail, Crumbling Factories, and Sinking Stocks was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.

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Connecting the Dots: Not Yet Time to Celebrate a Market Turnaround

By Tony Sagami

The Wall Street crowd liked what they heard last week and pushed the Dow Jones to a new high. In particular, the trio of the Republican landslide victory, an overall positive Q3 earning season, and a good jobs report that showed unemployment dropping to 5.8% was behind the rally.

And what a rally it was. Since the start of earnings season on October 8, the S&P 500 has increased by 3% and has bounced by an eye popping 9.1% from the October 15 low. Many of my peers have already popped the champagne and drunkenly declared a coast-is-clear resumption of the great bull market.

Not so fast. There was a trio of negative news pieces last week that tells me there is more to be worried about than there is to celebrate.

“V” Is for Vulnerable… Not Victory

You shouldn’t trust “V”-shaped bottoms.

Instead of being encouraged by the 9% moonshot since the October 15 low, I am even more skeptical. The S&P 500 shot up by 220 points in just three weeks, which tells me that the rubber band of stock market psychology is overstretched.



The stock market’s massive mood swing from fear to greed can change just as quickly to the other direction. Sharp trend reversals followed by sharp rebounds is not a kind of bottom building behavior.

The rally has been accomplished with low trading volume—a classic definition of an unsustainable bounce because it shows that the rally was more from a lack of sellers rather than an abundance of buyers.

And don’t forget about the drastic underperformance of small stocks. The Russell 2000 is up less than 1% for the year compared to 11% for the Nasdaq and 10% for the S&P 500.

Earnings: Look Ahead, Not Behind

Overall, corporate America had an impressive third quarter. 88% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their third-quarter earnings; of those, 66% exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Impressive, right? Not so fast!

When it comes to earnings, you need to be looking through the front-view windshield and not the rear-view mirror.



Even the perpetually bullish analytical community is getting worried. The average estimates for Q4 earnings as well as Q1 2015 are being downwardly adjusted. Since October 1:

• Q4 earnings growth have been lowered from 11.1% to 7.6%;and
• Q1 2015 earnings growth has been chopped from 11.5% to 8.8%.

Don’t give Wall Street too much credit for being rational. Those downward revisions are largely based on the cautious outlook given the corporate America itself. The ratio of negative outlooks to positive outlooks is 3.9 to 1!

Both Wall Street and corporate America are concerned, and so should you be.

Don’t Ignore Central Bankers’ Warnings

Many of the world’s central bankers gathered in Paris last week to figure out how to keep the world’s leaky financial boat from sinking, as well as spending more of their taxpayers’ money on fine wine, cuisine, and luxury hotels.

All those central bankers are eager to keep their economies afloat, but judging from the comments, they’re worried that they are running out of monetary bullets.

“Normalization could lead to some heightened financial volatility,” warned Janet Yellen.



“This shift in policy will undoubtedly be accompanied by some degree of market turbulence,” said William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The transition could be bumpy … potential for financial market disruption,” cautioned Bank of England Governor Mark Carney.

“Paramount risk of very low interest rates is to entertain the illusion that governments can continue to borrow rather than make difficult and yet necessary choices and indefinitely put off the implementation of structural reforms,” admitted Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer.

“The bottom line is there is a very good question about whether more stimulus is the answer,” said Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Perhaps the most honest and telling statement from Malaysian central banker Zeti Akhtar Aziz: “In this highly connected world, you would be kindest to your neighbors when your keep your own house in order.”

That’s a whole lot of central banker warnings—and it’s always a mistake to ignore the people who control the world’s printing presses.

30-year market expert Tony Sagami leads the Yield Shark and Rational Bear advisories at Mauldin Economics. To learn more about Yield Shark and how it helps you maximize dividend income, click here.

To learn more about Rational Bear and how you can use it to benefit from falling stocks and sectors, click here.

The article Connecting the Dots: Not Yet Time to Celebrate a Market Turnaround was originally published at mauldin economics

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How To Position Yourself for a 10 Year Pattern Breakout

As mentioned last Friday just before things took a dive on the weekend, a look at the major market indices did not look promising. If we take an even longer term look and examine the monthly charts we can see that The S&P 500 as well as the Dow Jones have been approaching multi decade rising channel resistance lines. Further, they also appear to be forming bearish rising wedge patterns.

Monthly Long Term Chart Analysis & Thoughts....

As many of my longer term subscribers can attest to, I always preach that technical analysis is one part art and one part science: you can never be completely certain on what the outcome of a pattern is going to be. However, we can use historical analysis to make better investments. The great American Novelist Mark Twain probably said it best in that “history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes”. Regarding a rising wedge pattern, we know that roughly two thirds of the time they will break to the downside. This also means that one third of the time they break to the upside.

In accomplishing our goal of capital growth we must do a number of things. We must make returns on our investments, we must protect our investments, and we must limit our losses. While all three aspects work in tandem with each other, there are times when focus must be allocated to one specific approach.

Regarding the current technical setup, I’m not so focused on the 67% chance that these wedges will break to the downside, but more so the impact of each outcome on the average Joe’s portfolio and mom and pop businesses. The S&P 500 and the Dow are approaching long term resistance lines that have been in place for decades. If we do break to the downside, which I suspect we will, there could be a very significant sell off with consequences that no one can predict at this point though I mention some things in the chart above. Alternatively, there is significant overhead resistance in the various indices, and I don’t believe an upside break would be too monumental.

That being said, I always like to keep an open outlook and wait for the right opportunity. I’m trying to think of scenarios that would prelude further upside action and I really am not coming up with much. As evidenced by the completion of the recent 5 wave uptrend on the S&P that coincided nicely with the various quantitative easing policies, Ben Bernanke and the fed have had less and less impact. I truly can’t see many fiscal developments that would prompt any significant bullish action.

The only scenario I really think that could pump up equities is a series of positive earnings announcements. A lot of expectations, earnings numbers, guidance, etc… have been revised downwards over the last couple of quarters, so there is the opportunity for some positive surprises that could lead to some bullish price action. In absence of such a scenario, I really can’t think of much else that would prompt a run up.

Look at these charts of positive and negative earnings surprises… and the dates and remember what happened following this negative data....

Positive Earnings Surprise

Negative Earnings Surprise

That being said, I am recommending two courses of action. For those steadfast bulls, lock in some profits and/or buy some protection. Missing out on some of the upside is a lot better than losing some of the gains you have fought so hard for over the past couple of years. For the more aggressive traders and investors, start following my updates a little more regularly as I foresee many shorting opportunities coming up in the future. As many of you know, sell offs are often quick and abrupt, and timing is extremely important when playing the downside.

Further, trading could get very volatile in the near future. Historically, and even more so looking forward as August and September have been very costly for the average investor. Our focus will be in taking the highest probability trades that offer the best risk to reward scenarios. There will be times when we miss trades, and times when they’re not timed perfectly. But, as those who have been with me for a while can attest to, patience pays off in the long run....

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Chris Vermeulen

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Evidence Supports the Bears’ Case for the S&P 500

I am not one to discuss fundamentals or macro views, but this situation in Europe is beginning to morph into a media frenzy. Price action in the marketplace is changing rapidly in short periods of time based on the latest press releases coming from the Eurozone summit.

I cannot help but comment on the seemingly arbitrary actions coming from this high profile meeting. Nothing has happened that market participants were not already privy too. The European Union is going to strengthen their EFSF fund by levering it up roughly 4 : 1. I have yet to hear how exactly they plan on doing this, but this action was no surprise to anyone that has read an article about the sovereign debt crisis in the past month.

There was also discussion about backstopping European banks’ capital position. Since European banks are holding billions (Euros) of risky sovereign debt instruments, it would make sense that their capitalization is a primary concern of Eurozone leaders based on current fiscal conditions. I would argue that the banks should be well capitalized regardless of economic or fiscal conditions in order for a nation to have a strong, vibrant economy that has the potential to grow organically.

The final piece of this week’s political nonsense involves write-downs on Greek debt in the neighborhood of 50% – 60% in order to stabilize Greece’s debt to GDP ratio. Apparently Eurozone leaders want to structure the write down so as to avoid payouts by credit default swaps which act as insurance against default. How does a bond take a 50% – 60% valuation mark down without a creating an event that would trigger the payout of CDS swaps?

If a write down of that magnitude does not trigger the CDS swaps, then I would argue they are useless as a tool to hedge against the default risk carried by sovereign debt instruments. If the CDS swaps do not payout as projected by European politicians, the risk assumed by those purchasing government debt obligations around the world would be altered immediately.

The impact this might have on the future pricing of risk for government debt instruments could be extremely detrimental to their ability to raise funds in the private market. Additionally, the write downs would hurt European banks’ capital positions immediately. If the CDS swaps were to pay out, bank capital ratios would suffer as those who took on counter party risk would be forced to cover their obligations thereby straining capital positions even further potentially.

Price action today suggested that the equity markets approved of the package that European leaders were working on. However, the biggest push higher came when news was released that China was interested in purchasing high quality debt instruments as a means to help prop up poorly capitalized banks and sovereign nations in the Eurozone through an IMF facility.

The market did an immediate about face which saw the Dollar selloff while the S&P 500 rallied higher into the close reversing a great deal of Tuesday’s losses. Inquiring minds wish to know where we go from here? I would be lying if I said I knew for sure which direction Mr. Market favored, however that did not stop me from looking for possible clues.

It has been a while since I checked out the short-term momentum charts that are focused on the number of stocks in U.S. domestic equity markets that are trading above their 20 & 50 period moving averages. The charts below illustrate the current market momentum:

Equities Trading Above the 20 Period Moving Average

It is rather obvious that when we look at the number of stocks trading above their 20 period moving average that momentum is running quite high presently. This chart would indicate that in the short-term time frames equities are currently overbought.

Equities Trading Above the 50 Period Moving Average

A similar conclusion can be drawn when we look at the number of stocks trading above their 50 period moving averages. It is rather obvious at this point in time that in the short to intermediate term time frames, stocks are currently at overbought levels. This is not to say that stocks will not continue to work higher, but a pullback is becoming more and more likely.

Additional evidence that would support the possibility that a pullback is likely would be the  recent bottom being carved out in the price action of the U.S. Dollar Index. The U.S. Dollar has been under selling pressure since the beginning of October, but has recently started to show signs that it could be stabilizing and setting up to rally higher.

The daily chart of the U.S. Dollar Index is shown below:

The U.S. Dollar Index is sitting right at major support and is oversold based on historical price action. If the Dollar begins to push higher in coming days and weeks it is going to push equity prices considerably lower. Other risk assets such as gold, silver, and oil would also be negatively impacted by higher Dollar prices.

Members of my service know that I focus on several sectors to help give me a better idea about the broader equity markets. I regularly look at the financial sector (XLF), the Dow Jones Transportation Index (IYT), emerging markets (EEM), and the Russell 2000 Index (IWM) for clues about future price action in the S&P 500.

During my regular evening scan I noticed that all 4 sector/index ETF’s are trading at or near major overhead resistance. With the exception of the Dow Jones Transportation Index (IYT), the other 3 underlying assets have yet to breakout over their August 31^st highs. The significance of August 31^st is that is the date when the S&P 500 Index put in a major reversal right at the 1,230 price level before turning lower. It took nearly two months to regain the 1,230 level and its significance continues to hold sway.

The daily chart of IWM is shown below illustrating its failure to breakout over the August 31^st highs:

The chart above illustrates clearly that IWM has failed to breakout above the August 31^st highs. I am going to be watching IWM, XLF, & EEM closely in coming days to see if they are able to breakout similarly to the S&P 500. If they start to rollover, it will not be long before the S&P 500 likely follows suit.

Currently the underlying signals are arguing for lower prices in the short to intermediate term. While it is entirely possible that the S&P 500 rallies higher from here, it is without question that current market conditions are overbought in the short to intermediate terms.

Key sectors and indices are not showing follow through to the upside to help solidify the S&P 500′s recent break above the key 1,230 price level. Additionally, the U.S. Dollar Index is currently trading right at key support in addition to being oversold. At this time I am not playing the S&P 500 in either direction, but I will be watching the underlying price action in the U.S. Dollar Index closely. I will be watching for additional clues in the days ahead.

Market and headline risk is high presently.

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How to Find Market Tops for Gold & the Dow

Last week the general market continued to grind its way higher for yet another week. Overall I feel the market is very much over bought. We all know the market can stay in extreme overbought levels for extended periods of time making it very difficult to pick tops.

This is the reason I do not try to pick tops, but rather wait for a top to form before putting my money to work. While a bottom can be made in 1 day, tops tend to take days and some times months to complete.

A few things really stood out to me when looking back on last week’s price action.

1. Gold (GLD Fund) was only up 0.29% for the week while the gold mining stocks (GDX Fund) was down over 3.5%. This strong divergence really has me concerned about the price of gold in the near term. Gold stocks generally lead gold and if they are down 10x more than gold last week, we better watch out....

2. The US Dollar broke out and started to rally posting a gain of 1% for the week. It is definitely weird to see gold move higher when the US dollar is rising…

Gold GLD Daily Chart

Gold has been trading sideways/down since December. I see this large 5 month pullback as a bull flag and expect to see much higher prices for gold long term. But I don’t count my eggs before they hatch, so I continue to focus on the daily and intraday chart patterns for low risk trading opportunities.

Friday we saw gold close very strong for the day. It looks very much like a reversal candle but with the price trading under the mini head & shoulders neck line and with the US Dollar in rally mode again, I don’t think the stars are aligned enough for me to put money to work just yet.

Gold is currently trading in a major congestion zone. Until there is a breakout of this zone, I think setups will not be very accurate.



Dow Jones Industrial Average vs. NYSE New Highs Divergence – JANUARY

This chart shows the January 2010 peak in the stock market. As you can see prices became choppy with strong up and down movements before we saw the sharp drop.

Also note the NYSE new highs line. As the market became choppy new highs began to drop quickly. This indicated the market internals were weakening and led to an 8% drop over the next couple weeks.



Dow Jones Industrial Average vs. NYSE New Highs Divergence – MARCH

This chart in my opinion looks much the same as January. You can see the Reversal candle from the February lows and the strong rally to the current price, as of Friday.

Notice how the market is getting choppy. Also last Thursday the Dow gave us a reversal candle. But this time the reversal candle is to the down side.

Also note the NYSE New Highs line. It has dropped sharply indicating the market internals are weakening once again.

This is what trading is all about… finding things that are out of whack and waiting for a low risk setup in order to make a profit.



Weekend Trading Conclusion:

In short, the stock market is over bought and about to roll over. I do understand that this grind higher could last another week or so, which is why I am focusing on short/quick intraday movements like Friday’s SP500 Intraday Low Risk Setup, and not buying etf funds to hold for a few weeks. Most of you know I do not chase prices higher simply because down side risk increased when buying into an over extended rally.

I feel gold, silver and oil will move together and at this time, I don’t like their charts for trading. With any luck we could get some setups this week, but not counting anything just yet.

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New Video: As the Dow Goes, So Goes the Country

The Dow has managed to claw back 50% of the losses that occurred in 2007 and 2008. The question now is, what’s ahead?

In our new video we share with you some of the ideas that we are looking at for this index. We believe we are at a very important crossroads and would not be surprised to see this market lose ground in the next 3 to 6 months. In the video we also show you exactly what we are looking at that will confirm a major top for this index.

Just click here to watch the new video and as always our videos are free to watch and there is no need to register.

Good trading,

Ray C. Parrish
President/CEO
Stock Market Club

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Two Major Forces Collide in the Index Markets

On Wednesday, 11/11/09, the Dow Jones Industrial Index rallied to a 50% retracement level based on MarketClub’s Fibonacci measuring tool. The action today indicates that this level is very important and that it could be an important top for this market.

In our latest video we cover both the Dow and the S&P 500 and tell you what we think is going to happen to both of these markets in the near and intermediate term.

Just Click Here to watch our latest video and as always our videos are free to watch and there’s no need to register. Please take a moment to let us know what you think of the video by leaving a comment.

Ray C. Parrish
President/CEO, The Crude Oil Trader