3 Key Relationships to Help Assess Market Direction

If you are finding yourself fluctuating between bullishness and bearishness, then congratulations! Hopefully, that also means you are waiting for certain signals to help you commit to one way or another.

Here are the signals we are waiting for before overly committing to a bias:

As we wrote over the weekend, how the junk bonds (high yield high debt bonds) do independently, and how they perform against the long bonds (TLT). How the retail and transportation sectors do (along with small caps) as they represent the "inside" of the US economy. How DBA (ags) and DBC (commodity index) do relative to the strong dollar and higher yields.

The first chart shows you a sell signal mean reversion as far as the ratio between long bonds and junk bonds signaled. However, junk still outperforms long bonds -- at this point, that says risk on, but a cautious risk on, with junk gapping lower and taking out summer lows (but holding March lows at 72.61).

Retail (XRT) had a solid reversal bottom last week. Now, it must clear last Friday's highs and hold June lows... plus, XRT outperforms SPY right now.

Transportation (IYT) is now underperforming SPY. Although consolidating after breaking under the 200-DMA (green), it looks vulnerable. Could that change? A move over 235 would be a good start.

Looking at DBA, that whole commodities sector is outperforming the SPY. Makes you wonder what would happen if the dollar and/or yields soften.

Trading slightly below the July 6-month calendar range high, we anticipate DBA can continue higher, especially if price retakes the 50-DMA (blue line). DBC fell right onto support at its 50-DMA. Momentum also fell into support. Furthermore, DBA also outperforms SPY. This certainly makes the case for higher commodities and inflation as a trend again, especially if long bonds and the dollar soften.

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Mish in the Media

Watch Mish and Nicole Petallides discuss how pros and cons working in tandem, plus why commodities are still a thing, in this video from Schwab.

Mish talks TSLA in this video from Business First AM.

See Mish argue investors could jump into mega-tech over value and explain why she is keeping an eye on WTI prices on BNN Bloomberg's Opening Bell.

Even as markets crumble, there are yet market opportunities to be found, as Mish discusses on Business First AM here.

Mish explains how she's preparing for the next move in Equities and Commodities in this video with Benzinga's team.

Mish talks about the head-and-shoulders top pattern for the S&P 500 in The Final Bar.

Mish covers sectors from the Economic Family, oil, and risk in this Yahoo! Finance video.

Mish shares why the most important ETFs to watch are Retailers (XRT) and Small Caps (IWM) in this appearance on the Thursday, September 20 edition of StockCharts TV's The Final Bar with David Keller, and also explains MarketGauge's latest plugin on the StockCharts ACP platform. Mish's interview begins at 19:53.

Mish covers 7 stocks that are ripe for the picking on the Wednesday, September 20 edition of StockCharts TV's Your Daily Five, and she gives you actionable levels to watch.

Take a look at this analysis of StockCharts.com's Charting Forward from Jayanthi Gopalkrishnan, which breaks down Mish's conversation with three other charting experts about the state of the market in Q3 and beyond.

Mish was interviewed by Kitco News for the article "Oil Prices Hit Nearly One-Year High as it Marches Towards $100", available to read here.

Mish covers short term trading in DAX, OIL, NASDAQ, GOLD, and GAS in this second part of her appearance on CMC Markets.

Mish talks Coinbase in this video from Business First AM!

Mish looks at some sectors from the economic family, oil, and risk in this appearance on Yahoo Finance!

Mish covers oil, gold, gas and the dollar in this CMC Markets video.

In this appearance on Business First AM, Mish explains why she's recommending TEVA, an Israeli pharmaceutical company outperforming the market-action plan.

As the stock market tries to shake off a slow summer, Mish joins Investing with IBD to explain how she avoids analysis paralysis using the six market phases and the economic modern family. This edition of the podcast takes a look at the warnings, the pockets of strength, and how to see the bigger picture.

Mish was the special guest in this edition of Traders Edge, hosted by Jim Iuorio and Bobby Iaccino!

In this Q3 edition of StockCharts TV's Charting Forward 2023, Mish joins a panel run by David Keller and featuring Julius de Kempenaer (RRG Research & StockCharts.com) and Tom Bowley (EarningsBeats). In this unstructured conversation, the group shares notes and charts to highlight what they see as important considerations in today's market environment.

Coming Up:

October 4: Jim Puplava, Financial Sense

October 5: Yahoo! Finance & Making Money with Charles Payne, Fox Business

October 12: Dale Pinkert, F.A.C.E.

October 26: Schwab and Yahoo! Finance at the NYSE

October 27: Live in-studio with Charles Payne, Fox Business

October 29-31: The Money Show

Weekly: Business First AM, CMC Markets

ETF Summary

S&P 500 (SPY): There are multiple timeframe support levels around 420-415. Russell 2000 (IWM): 170 huge. Dow (DIA): 334 pivotal. Nasdaq (QQQ): 330 possible if can't get back above 365. Regional Banks (KRE): 39.80 the July calendar range low. Semiconductors (SMH): 133 the 200-DMA with 147 pivotal resistance. Transportation (IYT): 237 resistance, 225 support. Biotechnology (IBB): 120-125 range. Retail (XRT): 57 key support; if can climb over 63, get bullish.

Mish Schneider

MarketGauge.com

Director of Trading Research and Education