Into the Laggard's Lair

Financials, transports, insurers, small caps, and Dow names are all well out in front of the large cap tech names in the Nasdaq this morning, as the laggards from the last few months are taking over and giving bulls inspiration for a potential fresh leg higher in the broad market.

In addition, the musical chairs game of CoronaVirus vaccine plays seems to be in play agin, with MRNA down 8% but NVAX higher by 14% as I write this, also giving hope for the virus future "waves" being mitigated or outright prevented. Still, seeing NFLX SHOP soundly in the red alongside AMZN flipping red here, on top of many biotechs red this morning, should probably not be dismissed out of hand. 

The real issue for this market is at what point it has sufficiently priced in the various re-openings across the country. To be sure, there is quite a bit of pent-up demand due to the powerful optimism and sunny disposition of summer after several months of quarantines--That is, simply put, human nature.

But at what point the realty of historical unemployment coupled with skimpy government stimulus checks running out starts to set in remains to be seen. 

With the QQQ well behind the the aforementioned laggards this morning (XLF KIE IWM DIA IYT, e.g.), the "laggard's lair" phase of this market is offering up some of the worst risk-to-reward longs, ironically, just when it seems like the market has put the worst of the March volatility and the worst of the virus behind it.