Weekly Column” for November 2, 2020 1
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Section by Section Briefs November 2, 2020 OPENING: The Bear Growls Are we entering a Bear market or will seasonality win out? We are leaning towards the former The SCORECARD: Broken Ranges NDX and SPX trending lower. Biden Bump continues as Mids, small gain on S&P and Asian Markets gain steam WEEKLY RISK MANAGEMENT: Big Reversal in Risk Watching the VXST for a reversal and will help confirm if we are sitting in a bull or bear market. COLUMN EARNINGS: ERT Reversing Down from Column E Advisors A downward trending ERT has not been a support for rising stocks historically. The ERT is set to rollover this week. A Weekly Newsletter from the COMMODITIES & PRICES: Falling research department at Column Commodities E Advisors Crude products are falling, Gold is languishing but Natural gas is driving higher. Ultimately it comes down to the CRB and the signals are not good. RATES AND MONEY: Tight Money, higher yields and trouble? The jump in long bond yields has been a long time coming from a chart perspective. However, is this from a fall on money momentum? What are the follow on effects? PORTFOLIO UPDATE: Oversold? Over the past week, several stocks dropped into short term downtrends but we suspect that too many of them did. In August, there was the polar opposite effect with too many buys. CHART QUICK HITS - Industrial Metals over S&P’s - Bitcoin breakout continues - Euro turn lower, discretionary stocks lagging and more COLUMN E ADVISORS “WEEKLY COLUMN” FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2020 1 Leading Off The Bear Growls? by Brendan McCarty On Twitter last week, I posited that the current trading of the S&P 500 was much like what occurred in 2018 – an analysis we also posted in this opening last week. One Twitter user immediately said I was wrong, and when I asked why, like most on Twitter, this user would not answer (maybe watching their long positions melt after the Tweet?). Meanwhile, the S&P 500 cascaded, breaking through the critical 3300 level midweek. However, on the close Friday, the S&P ripped higher from 3230 to 3270 (month end shenanigans and squaring), and this morning is trying to regain that level once again. Overall, the action led to ripples through the market, and the bear was herd growling. Indications that a potential bear market is developing was first visible through our Growth model, which we showed last week was trending lower. It had broken a key range and this week broke a similarly important moving average. Also, the NT Model, our primary trend indicator for the markets, fell below the zero line, which typically argues that a larger downtrend is now in play. However, it is still holding above the key moving average, supporting the bullish trend. Lastly, our stock models, which we shared in full detail on Wednesday in our “Just Stocks” note, are either oversold or pointing to a much larger dip for the largest names in the economy. Our short term rating and long term ratings on the sample both worsened. However, if one were to be a contrarian, as we will explain lower, the current range level is the polar opposite of what we saw at the end of August, before the selloff in stocks in September. Could that be the reason we are above 3300 early this morning? There are positives, however! In the open and the risk section last week, we mentioned that our complacency model at this time of the year is typically a momentum indicator. If it is sitting at an extreme, it tends to support the argument that the trend will continue that way into year-end. The prior week, the indicator was mildly overbought. This dynamic historically sets up a year-end rally as a result. With that said, as we wrote about the fall of 2018, the market was very COLUMN E ADVISORS “WEEKLY COLUMN” FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2020 2 complacent as the buyers fought every dip through November, only to dump them all as Decembers bounce would not materialize. But last week, the overbought market rapidly moved away from this stance and towards oversold. Complacency did an about-face, as investors dumped stocks now vs. waiting till December! The last time our Complacency Model shifted this aggressively was in September when the S&P 500 hit 3331 on 9/8. The market would stabilize that week, see a good bounce before submitting to lower prices ten days later and bottoming on 9/24. Before September, this model also similarly shifted gears on 6/11 – when the S&P 500 hit 3002. The market would bounce higher, and the S&P 500 has not seen that level since! While this all supports the bulls, the last data point will not. The last time the Complacency Model shifted like this was before the lockdowns in February when the S&P had hit 3116 on 2/26. The S&P 500, in typical bear market fashion, continued lower, ignoring the signal, and the selling accelerated in March. Reviewing similarly aggressive moves since 2000, 21 have occurred in either October or November. On average, the return that followed over the next two months was 4.5%. This supports the seasonality and the momentum we have shown of rising stock prices through year-end. As a result, if the bounce follows, as this signal argues, the S&P 500, following historical returns, would finish at 3440 by year end. But is this the end of the story? No. If you recall, we have written in the past that in 2000 and 2007, the markets rolled over in the fall, indicating a bear market trend was at hand (2016 did not materialize like we thought it could). In 2000, there was a jump in panic as The Growth model has broken October ended (and that testy election through 13 month MA carried into 2001). In 2007, panic rose into the end of October as well and crescendoed in mid-November. In late 2014, before the downturn in 2015, panic rose once again though stocks just moved in a tight range for nearly two years while this downside signal subsided and then reversed higher at the end of 2016. In all three cases, panic sets the stage for a bear market turn at this time of the year. Is 2020 another example? In 2000 and 2007, the NT Model and Growth model were already turning lower, in absolute turns (ie positive or negative) and versus their key moving averages. In 2014, both the NT and Growth models were trailing key moving averages lower but were still on an absolute basis, positive as these panic signs arrived. Now, in 2020, the picture is a bit messy. The Growth model is trending glower, but the NT is holding. The Growth model is positive, but the NT model is negative. Thus a result of a mixed long-term picture against oversold short-term measures. So which way are stocks going? We are watching and see how the market handles today’s panic and how the NT and Growth respond over the next few weeks. 2000 and 2007 both had weak finishes to the year (7.6% in 2000, 5.1% in 2007), which pushed both lower. 2014 kept on climbing, and the bear never COLUMN E ADVISORS “WEEKLY COLUMN” FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2020 3 arrived. A bounce in the equity markets, similar to June and September (both triggered by the aggressive move in the Complacency model), confirms the bull market is still in place, and a run into year-end is on the table. If the bounce does not materialize out of this signal, however, then the bear market is probably here, pending confirmation from the NT and Growth models. THE MARKET SCORECARD Broken Ranges The last few months for the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), has been a tale of two cities. For the SPX, this index has been bouncing around through key pivots, whether 3300, 3390, or 3500, providing some clues on where the market is going. However, the NDX, has rejected the same 12,000 level repeatedly while finding buyers under 11,000, 11,500, and everywhere in between. What has resulted is wider ranges for the S&P and a consolidating one for the NDX. Is this just a representation of the buyers continuing to buy the winners and selling more in the SPX, which creates a tighter range in one and a broader range in the other? Possible. While the SPX topped at 3600 in August and the NDX around 12,000, the drop of late has continued to use this playbook as the NDX holds support, and the SPX gives ground. This past week, the NDX finally fell lower on the back of the large-cap growth names saw major shifts in their direction – we detail some of those changes in our stock sample further down. But even with this selling, the NDX still did not break key supports, while the S&P lost 3300. The SPX has been holding firm to a rising uptrend since the summer between 3300/3700, with the lower end holding several times and 3390 also providing support. Last week both gave out as selling, and risk control measures sent the SPX down to 3200 on Friday morning. However, with the support in the NDX, the buyers poured into the S&P 500 late on Friday, and that has continued this morning over 3300 once again as the futures have rolled higher in early trade. Clouding this picture is the election that comes tomorrow.