Bump In The (Silk) Road?

With each passing day, week and month, we are more in awe of this market. It just keeps plugging along higher and higher. There is no predicting when the momentum will shift so we continue to be invested but just a little less so. The winning strategy is to recalibrate our investing, downshifting in our risk while seeking better risk adjusted returns. It is not our job to prognosticate but to keep an eye on what could upset the apple cart and how to profit from it. Our latest worry is China. China has just completed its most recent 5-Year Congress. Every 5 years the leaders in China get together to elect leadership and formulate the next 5-year plan. Xi Jinping continues to consolidate his power and his grip on one of the great economic engines on the planet. Leading into the congress, the leadership there chose stability over change. Now that the congress is over, Xi can get back to work. We are looking at China to see if, now that leadership has another 5 years in charge, change is about to come to China. Will China now try to reel in shadow lending in the country and its rampant real estate market? Will they allow a more rapid depreciation in the Yuan? If change comes to China, it will reach our shores soon enough as the economic ripples will be felt worldwide.

From Cashin's comments this week comes some interesting facts cited by the sharp eyed Bob Pisani from CNBC:

Technology is so strong this month that it accounts for 75% of the gain in the S&P 500, according to Standard & Poors. Without Tech, the S&P would only be up roughly 0.5%. It's worse than that: five stocks are most of the gain. Big tech this month Facebook up 15.5% Amazon up 12.5% Apple up 8.2% Google up 6.1% Microsoft up 6.0%… Those five stocks accounted for 52% of the gain in the entire S&P 500. What happens if we look at the S&P 500 and equal weight all of the stocks? A very different picture. There's an ETF for that: the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) is up 1.1 percent for the month. That is exactly half the gain of the regular S&P 500.

Investor sentiment is always hard to gauge, but we keep an eye on it to try and delve where the animal spirits reside. Market pundits have described this rally from 2009 as the most hated rally ever. Most hated maybe because investors have been behind the curve the whole time chasing it ever higher. Also from the NYSE's resident sage, Arthur Cashin, comes this opinion on market sentiment from Peter Boockvar at the Lindsay Group. Maybe investors have now caught the tiger by the tail.

This boat is now standing room only. Investors Intelligence said Bulls rose 1.2 pts to 63.5, that is the highest in about 30 years. It peaked at 65 in 1987. Bears fell to 14.4 from 15.1 and that is the lowest since May 2015. The spread between the two of 49.1, is just below the 1987 peak of 50.5. I've said this before, when sentiment gets this stretched, markets tend to consolidate its gains. Given those figures, it's tough to claim that this is the "most hated rally in history".

The market has finished higher ten months in a row!! In an era of monetary extremes, this is one for the ages. We have never had a year that the market closed higher for the first ten months of the year. Never. By way of Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid, we see that the record is 12 months in a row set in 1949-1950 and 1935-1936. We grow concerned that the rally is growing even more stretched and more narrow in its rise. The techs are in charge as the Big Five accounted for half of the gains last month. A rally that grows more and more narrow is not a healthy market. S&P 500 shows signs of slowing its ascent. The market could use a consolidation period. It makes for a much stronger foundation. The bulls are still in control, but with the President out of the country, we tend to get a little nervous. We still see 2,600 as logical resistance for now. The animal spirits are unpredictable and still in control. Gotta be in it to win it, but maybe just a little less in.

Disclaimer: This blog is informational and is not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. If you are thinking about investing consider the risk. Everyone's financial situation is different. Consult your financial advisor.