Week Ahead: Stocks Set To Resume Corrective Rally On Technicals

 | Sep 11, 2022 11:29

  • Dollar maintained perfect negative correlation with stocks
  • Technology outperforms after underperforming, as market flips
  • Extreme pessimism attracts contrarians
  • Traders question whether rates are priced in
  • Will investors maintain last week's return to risk as the Federal Reserve pushes its liquidation pedal harder this month? Investors will find that both stocks and bonds become heavier as the dollar supply shrinks, and given that the economy is already in a downturn, continued tightening increases the chances for a recession even the Biden Administration will find it difficult to deny.

    All four major U.S. averages gained for the first week in four, erasing the previous week's losses.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed, rising 4.9%. However, in terms of the decline from the week that started Aug. 15, the S&P 500 Index is beating its peers, down only 5%, paring the 8.3% decline as of the previous week. Conversely, the two worst performers remain the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000 7.2% and 6.7%, respectively. This market paradigm is rational. Those last two are the most vulnerable when rates are on the rise. Investors are rotating out of big tech, which has maximized its return potential. They are dumping small companies, who don't have the resources and flexibility to deal with a tightening economy as large caps do.

    Let's dig deeper. Let's analyze the S&P 500 sectors. Consumer Discretionary surged 5.8%, the clear winner. However, in every other time frame: month, three months, six months, year to date, and yearly, Communication Services and its split conjoined twin, Technology, underperformed.

    But why will Technology outperform last week? Because the market flipped. The most stretched snapped back the hardest. Also, the dollar fell for the first week in four, after reaching a 20-year high and reaching levels against the yen not seen in 24 years. That 100% negative correlation is either a coincidence or causal.

    Given that a stronger dollar hurts American exports and foreign investments, there's reason to believe that a stronger dollar for the first three weeks weighed on equities and the weak dollar last week relieved that pressure. So, why would the dollar fall? Fedspeak was consistently pro further jump hikes, and rhetoric reiterated that inflation is still going strong and that policymakers will keep going for as long as necessary until they force inflation back down. In other words, there is no known fundamental reason for the dollar to back down, suggesting it declines in its haven status as investors increase risk.

    If there is no known fundamental reason, let's check out technical ones.

    Sentiment

    The sentiment indicator, the Levkovich Index - previously known as Citi's Panic/Euphoria model - dropped last week to 16, just one notch away from 17, considered a panic level. Bank of America's bull-and-bear gauge dropped to "maximum bearish," egging on contrarian investors.

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    Support and Resistance

    Support and resistance are functions of supply and demand. Chartists who follow trend lines create a self-fulfilled prophecy. Even fundamental analysts are humans. They remember that the price behaved in a certain way at a certain level, and that may influence an analyst's decision-making process.

    The following study of support and resistance I show you will probably represent the first time I have used it since the beginning of writing this column five and a half years and 2,313 articles ago - the Fibonacci indicator. I don't incorporate it into my analysis because I don't understand it. This mathematical sequence is found in many aspects of nature, and technicians, therefore, expect that it will also impact humans. I show it this time because it appears to be affecting the S&P 500 Index - consistently.