Exhausted Sellers May Have Lost This Auction

The correlation between the stock for high end auction house, Sotheby's, and the S&P 500 Index is a topic long-time readers know we have discussed many times since at least 2013. 

This morning, Sotheby's announced a $25.9 million loss for the first quarter of 2016. Despite that, the stock is rallying sharply today, up more than 6% as I write this.

For a good while now, BID has been lagging the market and may have been hinting at the high end art market coming back down to reality, or perhaps just cooling off a bit.

But with the S&P failing to follow BID's plunge since last summer, at least nowhere close to the same magnitude and duration, we need to keep an open mind now to the notion that BID could be bottoming with sellers now exhausted from quarters on end of domination.

Clearly, BID was much work to do to improve its chart on all timeframe. However, the multi-decade look, below, illustrates the swoon in recent quarters is likely due for at least respite. And today's earnings reaction implies that time is now.