Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist, Steno Research

Andreas Steno

Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist

Macro and Geopolitical Research House

Steno Research

Steno Research is a new macro and geopolitical research house. We are based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, but have an international team and a strong network of sources and partners around the world. The team is lead by Andreas Steno, previous global head of strategy at Nordea Bank, and Mikkel Rosenvold, former chief consultant in the Danish Ministry of Finance.

Macroeconomics

<ul><li>Hello everyone, and welcome back to our weekly Positioning Watch.</li><li>Markets were caught on the wrong side of expectations last week with PPI coming in substantially hotter than expected, but equity sentiment has remained decent outside of some profit taking in Tech, as the cocktail of better liquidity conditions and a brightening economic outlook is likely to prevail – and positioning provides very decent opportunities to trade the potential comeback for cyclical assets.</li><li>As this week’s chart of the week we present to you what looks to be the theme of Q1 2024, and the reason why right now is not a good time to be contrarian: momentum is king, and “go with the flow” currently performs WAY better than cherry-picking the good old value stocks.</li></ul>

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our weekly Positioning Watch.Markets were caught on the wrong side of expectations last week with PPI coming in substantially hotter than expected, but equity sentiment has remained decent outside of some profit taking in Tech, as the cocktail of better liquidity conditions and a brightening economic outlook is likely to prevail – and positioning provides very decent opportunities to trade the potential comeback for cyclical assets.As this week’s chart of the week we present to you what looks to be the theme of Q1 2024, and the reason why right now is not a good time to be contrarian: momentum is king, and “go with the flow” currently performs WAY better than cherry-picking the good old value stocks.

Positioning Watch – Low FX volatility provides cheap leverage for a rebound in manufacturing

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>Large-Cap indexes (S&amp;P 500, Nasdaq 100) remain bullish, finding support at their respective 20-day MAs since November 2023, and we remain bullish</li>
<li>The question is whether that will continue to be the case. Concerns are rising Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar (DXY), which have broken above short-term resistance levels on Feb13</li>
<li>Friday's PPI report should provide more clarity as to how concerned we should be about rising inflation</li>
</ul>


Large-Cap indexes (S&amp;P 500, Nasdaq 100) remain bullish, finding support at their respective 20-day MAs since November 2023, and we remain bullish
The question is whether that will continue to be the case. Concerns are rising Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar (DXY), which have broken above short-term resistance levels on Feb13
Friday's PPI report should provide more clarity as to how concerned we should be about rising inflation


S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Testing 20-Day MAs; 10-Yr Treasury Yield Testing Critical 4.35% Resistance

<ul>
<li>More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.</li>
<li>Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.</li>
<li>1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).</li>
</ul>


More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.
Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.
1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).


Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

<ul><li>Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.</li><li>Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.</li><li>This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.</li></ul>

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

<ul><li>Welcome back to our weekly positioning watch, where we as always provide you with our latest findings on sentiment, positioning, and everything in between.</li><li>Conclusions in short:Equities: Tech is now slightly overbought, while Utilities remain both oversold and undervalued.</li><li>Russell 2000 is the cheapest and most oversold index.</li></ul>

Welcome back to our weekly positioning watch, where we as always provide you with our latest findings on sentiment, positioning, and everything in between.Conclusions in short:Equities: Tech is now slightly overbought, while Utilities remain both oversold and undervalued.Russell 2000 is the cheapest and most oversold index.

Positioning Watch – Markets betting on lower rates and higher oil prices

United States

The Russell 2000 Index is comprised of the smallest 2000 companies in the Russell 3000 Index, representing approximately 8% of the Russell 3000 total market capitalization. The index was developed with a base value of 135.00 as of December 31, 1986.

Russell 2000 Index (RTY INDEX)

Positioning Watch – Low FX volatility provides cheap leverage for a rebound in manufacturing

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our weekly Positioning Watch. Markets were caught on the wrong side of expectations last week with PPI coming...

Steno Research

S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Testing 20-Day MAs; 10-Yr Treasury Yield Testing Critical 4.35% Resistance

$SPX and Nasdaq 100 $QQQ testing 20-day MAs (support since November); We remain bullish, but can't rule out a pullback to 4800-4850 on SPX; 10-Yr...

Vermilion Research

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar. 1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields $TNX failing at shorter-term resistances today; $DXY below...

Vermilion Research

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode,...

Steno Research

Positioning Watch – Markets betting on lower rates and higher oil prices

Welcome back to our weekly positioning watch, where we as always provide you with our latest findings on sentiment, positioning, and everything in...

Steno Research