Chinese stocks just had their best week in history, following the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) announcement of rate cuts, among other stimulative actions.
China is the world's largest consumer of refined copper, so base and industrial metals have benefited from the recent pivot from the PBOC.
Chinese stocks and copper futures have been positively correlated for years:
The 200-day rolling correlation flipped negative earlier this year but is positive again and has recently been screaming higher toward its highest positive correlation in history.
This week, the China Large-Cap ETF $FXI decisively broke a multi-year downtrend line and entered a new primary uptrend.
If the path of least resistance is higher for Chinese stocks, the 29th element should also catch a bid.
Earlier this year, Gold broke out to new all-time highs, but Copper...
It has been over 1,600 days since Crude Oil futures traded below zero in 2020, which preceded one of its best 2-year bull markets in history.
Since the peak in early 2022, energy has been a tough trade for those with trend-following strategies and a favorable one for mean-reversion strategies.
Crude Oil futures are at the lower bound of a multi-year range, and the Energy Sector SPDR $XLE has the fewest percent of stocks above their 200-day moving average out of all 11 sectors.
Energy has been a laggard recently.
However, it's important to remember where energy has come from. Crude Oil futures went from below 0 to 130 in less than two years, and the XLE is the second best-performing sector since Covid, lagging only Technology $XLK:
The outperformance has been in the energy sector. Just not recently...
But that could be changing soon with energy futures digging in at major levels of interest.
Crude Oil futures are bouncing off a key level of polarity:
We've been obnoxiously talking about soft commodities lately.
But, it's for a good reason! And it all comes down to relative strength.
Aside from a few pockets of strength, the trends have been a mess in the broader commodity complex.
Products like Natural gas and precious metals have been hard to ignore if you're involved in the commodities markets.
There's more though.
Orange Juice futures made a new all-time high this week and look primed to begin a new leg higher.
Let's talk about how we're playing it:
First, some context:
Like Cocoa, Orange Juice futures have gone wild in recent years. OJ has rallied 450% in the last 5-years, while Cocoa rallied nearly as much in half of the time.
Last month, we discussed the Palladium ETF $PALL hitting fresh 7-year lows, breaching a critical support level.
However, the bears could not gain any downside momentum, and it seems like we're nearing a cyclical trough.
Commercial hedgers have never carried a larger net-long position. Historically, it has been prudent to not bet against the smart money in commodities markets.
And one of our favorite long-term momentum indicators, the monthly MACD, has now given us a buy signal. That said, it's still a bit messy in the short term.
It's no secret that we're in a bull market for precious metals.
We made the argument for a new secular uptrend for these shiny rocks in last week's Gold Rush video.
Why do we think this is the case?
Gold futures have been printing fresh all-time highs seemingly every day, and precious metals stocks have followed suit with new highs of their own.
When you go back and study the previous cycles you'll notice that every bull market is characterized by more and more stocks making new highs along with the underlying futures contracts.
So let's take a step back and look at some stocks that are making new highs.
Gold has not only been shining in absolute terms but is also dramatically outperforming the broader commodity complex.
While energy chops around in a multi-year range and cattle carve out a distribution pattern, the glittering ore refuses to quit printing new all-time highs.