Whether the recent stock market and commodity retracements are over today won't be clear for a few days. The tidal model was, however, looking like a short cycle (4 days) double bottom with last Wednesday/Thursday for stocks and other reflation beneficiaries, and a double top for disinflation beneficiaries like Japanese yen and bonds and US bonds. The tidal cycle length varies naturally between four and eleven days, with eight days being typical. The next one runs to about the 23rd of July.
Both breakout strength for stocks from early March and market breadth remain positive and similar to many market bottoms of the past two decades. The daily NYSE advance/decline has held well.
Several charts below show sentiment remaining mixed but certainly not with a hyper bullish attitude. The short term "crash mode" spreads of XVX (three month VIX) to regular one month VIX and one year US Treasurys to three month LIBOR are evidence of greater confidence or at least a return toward normal toward
I saw a chart of consumer durables versus consumer disposables which is a good market measure of consumer confidence. Also The Dow Jones Transports are holding which reflects expectations and lower fuel costs.
All in all it seems there is a good probability that the rally out of March 9th isn't over yet. Some of the better real economists seem to think the worst is over, amongst whom Paul Kasriel remains my favorite. Despite all the talk pro and con versus "green shoots" most of the everyday news remains bearishly slanted, which is a positive in the twisted world of sentiment.
I've been looking a lot at the portfolio but have made very few changes. I've added a bit more on weakness in several oil & gas trusts, and I moved HSTRX, a big favorite, from the IRA funds to taxable accounts as it pays a low dividend and is geared more toward "Total Return" as it name clearly states. I am still wondering whether to replace it in the IRA with Bill Gross's PTTRX or with the Vanguard GNMA Fund VFIJX/VFIIX. PIMCO's Unconstrained Bond Fund PFIUX is another possibility and is now over a year old and looking good.
In taxable accounts I am still holding nearly 75% in VWSUX since I expect municipal rates to rise, and this one will be hurt least if they do. I have too much in gold-related assets there and will lighten up on a larger rally and look to add another hedge fund-like fund to RYMFX and HSTRX, perhaps the PIMCO All Asset All authority Fund PAUIX overseen by Rob Arnott. These three all have financials (fixed income) in them but also are geared toward inflationary expectations in a long/short or long/flat way instead of always being long.
As of June 1 I was up 8.6% on the year for all accounts plus gold, but I gave back about 40% of that in June and through Friday up 5.15%. My goal at this stage is 6.5% per year without a lot of risk, so I am on course. Last year I was up only 0.18% on the year!!
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