NASDAQ 100

Submitted by Rudy Havenstein

After years of seeing terrible market news and commentary, I’m pretty jaded, but when I saw the recent Marketwatch op-ed, “Janet Yellen’s true legacy is her focus on middle-class wages” (by Tim Mullaney), I thought such nonsense needed a reponse that went beyond 280 characters. (Half of Mullaney’s article is an anti-Trump rant, which is fine, and which I will ignore).

"If something is nonsense, you say it and say it loud."– Nassim Taleb

"Last week, after making new highs, the NASDAQ “reversed” to the downside. It bounced from there, but yesterday’s action was horrific, for having opened sharply, violently, surprisingly higher, by the day’s end the NASDAQ was sharply, violently, surprisingly weaker and it was so even as the Dow finished higher on the day, albeit materially below its peak. This morning, as we write, the Dow futures are higher but the NASDAQ is weaker… again!" - Dennis Gartman

One look at S&P futures this morning reveals an unchanged market, however it is again the violent sector rotation that is taking place behind the scenes that is the real story, with defensive sectors real estate, retail, food, utilities outperforming while investors continue to bail and book profits on tech stocks after sharp gains since the start of the year.

E-mini S&P 500 Futures (ES)

Based on candlestick wick analysis and data across all three primary US futures contracts, there is less selling pressure than ever before.

Not since xyz, not since insert year here... there is less selling pressure than ever.  But everything's awesome, right?  Just BTFD, right?

Judging by the market's euphoric reaction this morning, the Senate's passage of the tax bill on Saturday is nothing but good news for stocks (well, maybe not the Nasdaq). And indeed, banks - whose effective tax rate is around 30% - and other tax-sensitive companies are surging, with banks are outperforming and  sending the KBW bank index up as much as 2.8% to a fresh decade-high (BofA up as much as 3.9% to the highest since Oct. 2008; JPM up as much as 3.4% to record high; Citigroup up as much as 2.7% to highest since Dec. 2008).