Momentum Monday – Divergences

MarketSurge powers the charts in this video.

The latest reactions to tech earnings haven’t been bullish at all. Google crushed earnings estimates and gapped down. Palantir crushed estimates, gapped up initially, and then sold off quickly. Amazon missed earnings estimates and gapped down. AMD beat the estimates and sold off. META beat earnings estimates, gapped up, and quickly sold off. Upside gaps were used for profit-taking. Slight missteps were punished harshly. The only thing all big tech companies had in common this earnings season was announcing a significant increase in capex spending. This explains the relative strength in semiconductors and industrial stocks – anything needed to build AI data centers. 

While tech and crypto have been under significant pressure lately, energy, regional banks, industrials, transportation, and consumer staples are making new highs. This is why I can’t really call the recent carnage in the market a correction. It is more of a sector rotation. 

Then why are the headlines scary, and so many people are running away from the market and raising cash positions? Tech outperformed by such a large margin in the past 20 years that it has become “the market” in terms of market cap and capturing people’s attention. Everyone’s portfolio is tech-heavy, so a correction in tech is felt much harder by most.

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Volatility Is Rising

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In the scope of two weeks, the Nasdaq 100 went from breaking below its 50-day moving average on EU tariff threats to making new all-time highs back to dropping near its 50-day. In the meantime, former leaders like HOOD, SHOP, PLTR, APP, RDDT, and many others are getting pressured below their 200-day moving average. Volatility and divergences tend to increase at turning points. 

The one trend that has persisted since last December is strength in semis and weakness in software. The thesis is that AI benefits the former and can harm the latter. This theme accelerated in January. Microsoft’s earnings took the software group down further. The semiconductor ETF, SMH, went more than 20% above its 50-day moving average, so it is normal to see a pullback in the following weeks.

The momentum high flyers that seem to defy gravity finally went parabolic. Silver, gold, memory chip, and space exploration stocks dived from their all-time highs, bringing extra havoc and opportunities:

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Choppy Market

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Volatility has picked up significantly lately. It is not the good kind of volatility where you have a range expansion that starts a new uptrend or downtrend. It is the messy kind of volatility where you see frequent reversals and chop – if you don’t take your profits quickly, they disappear. 

Small caps (IWM) began the year extremely strong, reaching 10% YTD by January 22nd. They pulled back 2% on Friday – they were overdue for some type of consolidation. The silver lining is that Russell 2k’s pullback coincided with a rise in Big Tech stocks. Rotations are the essence of durable market uptrends as they keep the excesses in check. 

Silver and gold stocks accelerated their ascent, while the US Dollar is under heavy pressure again. Rare earth metal stocks are off to a strong year – some of them are already on their second upward leg. The next one that is likely to break out is

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