Leaders-Laggards

Utilities are taking a bit of a break here, but the uptrend looks like it’s still intact for now. NVIDIA's earnings report shouldn’t be shadowing the weakness that’s apparent in many other areas of the market. Long bonds are starting to make a comeback here. If gold resumes its rebound, which it did starting last week, then risk-off sentiment is likely to persist.

Utilities took a minor breather last week amid the return of tech & growth stocks, but the momentum is far from broken. Small-cap outperformance looks like it’s stalled out amid the return of the major large-cap averages to new record highs. Treasury bonds are starting to signal risk-off behavior again, confirming what we’re seeing in utilities and lumber/gold.

I’ll keep pounding the table that the bears are in control here. Staples have been relatively slow to respond to the rally in utilities stocks, but it looks like it’s finally starting to happen. While Japan gets most of the attention in the non-U.S. developed market world, it’d be easy to overlook what’s happening in Europe.