From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

For the week ended Friday, July 10, 2020:

Every week we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

This week we're going to highlight our US Index and Sector ETF tables, and focus on the laggards as they are giving us the most important information for the current market environment. Let's dive into it.

No surprises here... The Nasdaq $QQQ outperformed aggressively once again last week, booking a +4.7% gain while Mid, Small, and Micro-Caps were all lower. The Nasdaq is the only US Index that is higher over the trailing month.

Here is a chart from our Q3 playbook which illustrates the strength from not only the Nasdaq 100 but also Technology $XLK and Semiconductors $SOXX. It's impossible to be bearish when all these charts are at all-time highs.

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As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

Did you think it would be a historic stock market crash and a devastating global pandemic that would finally spark the rotation into emerging market stocks?

Yea me neither.

But here we are. 6 weeks of outperformance by Emerging Markets. Is this just another blip in the long-term downtrend for EM, particularly relative to US Equities?

We discussed this all in our NEW Q3 Playbook that was just published over the weekend.

Here's some perspective on the whole thing:

In early May we outlined the "Five Bull Market Barometers" we're watching to identify the beginning of a new bull market in stocks.

If you haven't read our initial post linked above, we'd encourage you to check it out so you understand what the rationale behind these five indicators is.

Now, let's see where these indicators ended the week.

This is our ASC Research Q3 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market, and the second half covers International Stock Markets and FICC (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies).

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Responses to this week's Mystery Chart were mixed. Some were betting on a breakout and buying while others wanted to fade this against the prior highs.

Others were waiting for more information, which is likely what we'd be doing. Thanks to everyone for participating.

But this chart is already packed with information. Let's dive in and talk about what it is.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

Over the past month I've shared a few happy hour videos with some of my friends. You can find the video with Kimmy & Fahmy here, and my happy hour with Russo & Thrasher here.

Today I sit down with Venture Capitalist and active trader Howard Lindzon. We talked about his favorite stocks, what he's buying now and why. He's very open to discuss what's in his portfolio and is never shy about telling you what he thinks! We discuss $MELI $SFIX $SQ $BABA and $PAGS.

Conversations with Howard are always fun and I learn something every time. I hope you enjoy!

Yesterday's post on "Pulling The Weeds" from our portfolios got some great feedback, so thank you for that.

It also prompted a question about whether we should be adding Equity exposure as the indexes go higher or if we should be lightening up and trying to add back on weakness.

This is a very personal question that'll look different for everyone in practice. In this post, I want to provide a framework to use when thinking about this so you can identify what's most appropriate for your portfolio.

Remember, our job as Market Technicians is to ask the right questions and then allow the market to tell us the answer.

Our view remains that this is a new bull market in stocks, so we want to continue using any weakness towards 10,000 in the Nifty 50 to be adding exposure. With that said, just as we would pull the weeds out of our garden periodically to keep it healthy, we want to do the same with our portfolios.

And what better time to review your portfolio than at the end of the quarter?

In this post, we're going to show a few examples of stocks that remain out of favor...and their characteristics, so that you can identify any of the weeds in your portfolio and determine the best course of action for them.