MarketChess

29Jul12:30 pmEST

Those Chips Suddenly Aren't Paula Deen Sweet Anymore

As we embark on one of the busiest midsummer weeks you will ever see in markets, between the biggest firms reporting earnings alongside about 40% of the S&P 500 Index's components, plus the FOMC and non-farm payrolls in the heat of an election year and heightened geopolitical tensions, you may have noticed the increasing intraday violence of...

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26Jul2:36 pmEST

Afternoon Update 07/26/24 {Video}

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25Jul12:04 pmEST

This is What a High(er) VIX Means

While certainly not at historically elevated extremes, the VIX (or Volatility Index) is higher than the sleepwalking levels it spent most of this spring and summer, heretofore. This morning, NVDA, semis, and most tech at-large opened sizably lower before reversing back to green/flat as I write this.  Bulls are cheering this move as a kind of...

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24Jul12:25 pmEST

We've Got Evidence Now, Pal

A higher low in the VIX; A lower high by the semiconductors (below on the updated daily chart for the SOX Index) as the 50-day moving average for that sector has now been clearly lost.  These are pieces of strong evidence that some type of regime change is underway in equities, as dip-buyers previously feasted with easy on any and all...

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23Jul1:26 pmEST

Misdirection to Throw You Off the Trail

After yesterday's relief bounce, the market is broadly being whipped around today with small caps outperforming. On the downside, however, semiconductors are among the worst performers on the back of an NXPI earnings selloff. Transports are also being sold as UPS is getting pounded after its own earnings.  However, I believe the takeaway from...

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22Jul11:44 amEST

New Regimes All the Way Around

If you accept the timeless Wall Street axiom that, "Markets hate uncertainty," then there can be little doubt an upcoming general election without the incumbent on the ballot will spark uncertainty, especially with President Biden dropping out of the race this late in the process. In addition, we have rising conflicts in the Middle East,...

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19Jul2:15 pmEST

Afternoon Update 07/19/24 {Video}

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18Jul11:43 amEST

A Bad Morning in Boca Raton

This morning was the first time in what seems like years (and perhaps is) that the Nasdaq Composite faded an initial heavy post-selloff rally hard.  In a corrective or bearish tape over the decades of modern market history we very often see opening gaps higher faded. This is a function of underwater longs who were levered needing to unwind...

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17Jul11:31 amEST

It's All One Big Trade

According to some folks I speak to in the institutional trenches, apparently the "low volatility" melt-up trade has seen quite a few shops, who previously had not dabbled in volatility, pile into selling it for a good while now. Part of that trade has enabled a nonstop rally in the mega cap techs, namely the "Mag7" leaders, alongside...

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16Jul12:12 pmEST

Gold is Sniffing Out the Mouse Trap

Students of history, and those who traded through it, will note that the best asset to own in the 1970s was gold, which went from $35 an ounce at the beginning of the decade to as high as $850 by 1980.  Gold, silver, and the miners are surging today, with gold printing a nominal new all-time high, as Fed Chair Jay Powell and his band of merry...

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