Momentum Monday – Still A Market of Stocks

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While Chinese stocks are in a crash mode, we continue to see strength in the U.S. stock market. Last week’s pullback in momentum names seems like another normal pullback within a bull market. They say that bull markets correct through sector rotation. This is exactly what we might be seeing currently in the market as the transportation sector broke out today. There are some many truckers clearing long bases: ECHO, ARCB, XPO, etc.

The cannabis craze has revitalized the interest in many biotechs. Today, we saw a major breakout in a large-cap stock like AMGN. Institutions are looking for a side door to participate in the growth of the cannabis industry and stocks like AMGN and TPB are perking up.

We also took a look at NDAQ, CMG, MCD, SBUX, AVAV, ROKU, etc.

Momentum Stocks Are Great Leading Indicators

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I pay close attention to the action in momentum stocks. They are called market leaders for a good reason. This is what I tweeted yesterday:

Keep a list of leading momentum stocks and watch how they act. Many of them are likely to get hit just before the market indexes’ selloff accelerates. You can create your own list of momentum stocks by scanning for the top performers on a 6 and 12-month time frames or you can take a shortcut and use established lists like the SL50 from MarketWisdom.com and IBD50 from Investors.com. A list of momentum stocks is a great source of long trading ideas during rising markets, it is a great leading indicator for both rallies and selloffs, and it is a great source of short trading ideas during corrections because most momentum stocks take a hard hit during general market declines.

From a big picture perspective, nothing has changed. All major U.S. stock indexes are still in an uptrend. Dip buyers are likely to step up around $180 for the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ). The sustainability of that potential bounce will largely depend on the price action in individual momentum names, because as I mentioned earlier – they tend to lead on the way up and on the way down.

Momentum Monday – The Comeback of Biotech?

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The bull market continues to rage with full force. Apple has been unstoppable after its earnings gap and it’s already a 1.1-trillion-dollar company. It is looking extended to chase here. Amazon is less than 2% away from becoming the next trillion-dollar company.

We continue to see strength in enterprise software, semiconductors, cybersecurity, retailers, and more recently – biotech. After quadrupling between 2012 and 2015, the biotech ETF, IBB has spent the last four years building a new base and it is not too far from making new all-time highs. The smaller-cap biotech ETF, XBI has already passed that milestone. The renewed interest in marijuana stocks has brought new life to the whole biotech sector. It might remain in play for a long time.