Friday - Sentiment

Sentiment is too bullish. 

The consensus point-of-view is "bullish long-term, cautious short-term". The fact that everyone is cautious short-term seems to be working in favor of higher stock prices at the moment, from a contrarian point-of-view. 

Investor's Intelligence says, "The bull-bear spread contracted but held well within the danger zone."

Bob Brinker (one of my favorites) reminded us that the market risk is high, but that stock prices are supported by the lack of any signs of a recession.

The 4-week average AAII Survey results is shown below in red, and with a cycle overlay in blue.

 

The 10-day Put/Call ratio is headed lower which shows cautiousness waning a bit over the last 5-6 days. But it still has a way to go (lower in this chart) before it puts downward pressure on stock prices. That is, if you use the December low as the target.

 

Bottom line: Contrarian sentiment indicates that we are overdue for a price pull back, and we'll probably get one once we all stop feeling so cautious short-term.

Sectors

There were no shifts in leadership among the major sectors shown below. The leaders were a bit stronger, the laggards a bit weaker in general.

 

Small caps are leaders and the price of IWM has remained above the 50-day, but the strength compared to SPX fell behind in January.

 

The Russian Ruble fell today and no surprise that RSX dropped as well. It breached the 50-day, but volume was average. The big thing is the negative relative strength.

 

RSX and XLE have a fairly high correlation as shown by this overlay below. So, considering the weakness in XLE, it makes sense to see RSX finally dropping as well.

 

 

Disclaimer:  I am not a registered investment advisor. My comments above reflect my view of the market, ...

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