Sector Detector: Stocks provide a tepid breakout as Fed greases the skids. So now what?

May 26, 2015 at 15:39 PM EDT

Courtesy of Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics Early last week, stocks broke out, with the S&P 500 setting a new high with blue skies overhead. But then the market basically flat-lined for the rest of the week as bulls just couldn’t gather the fuel and conviction to take prices higher. In fact, the technical picture now has turned a bit defensive, at least for the short term, thus joining what has been a neutral-to-defensive tilt to our fundamentals-based Outlook rankings. In this weekly update, I give my view of the current market environment, offer a technical analysis of the S&P 500 chart, review our weekly fundamentals-based SectorCast rankings of the ten U.S. business sectors, and then offer up some actionable trading ideas, including a sector rotation strategy using ETFs and an enhanced version using top-ranked stocks from the top-ranked sectors. Market overview: Last Wednesday’s FOMC minutes confirmed investor expectations by indicating that economic data does not yet warrant a fed funds rate hike in June, and investors took this as a reason to finally break out above stubborn technical resistance. Both PMI manufacturing and the Philly Fed index came in with readings that show some growth, but below expectations. The 4-week average on jobless claims fell to 266,000, which is quite promising. Equities remain the favored asset class this year, particularly those playing catch-up, like China, Japan, Europe — and even emerging markets. It now has been almost three years since the market pulled back at least 10%. Nevertheless, bulls are having a hard time gaining traction after this latest technical breakout (basically flat-lining after last Monday), and a test of conviction is sure to come. The psychological thresholds of Dow at 18,000, S&P 500 at 2100, NASDAQ at 5,000, and Russell 2000 at 1200 all must hold as support levels, or we are back to the market churn, searching for a new catalyst. The CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX), a.k.a. fear gauge, closed Friday at 12.13 and has held below the 15 fear threshold since a brief spike to that level back on May 6-7. In addition, the volatility of volatility (i.e., the VVIX) reached its lowest level since July 2014. In fact, ConvergEx points out that the expected volatility has fallen over the last month for a range of equities including U.S. small caps, emerging markets, and 8 of 10…

Courtesy of Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics

Early last week, stocks broke out, with the S&P 500 setting a new high with blue skies overhead. But then the market basically flat-lined for the rest of the week as bulls just couldn’t gather the fuel and conviction to take prices higher. In fact, the technical picture now has turned a bit defensive, at least for the short term, thus joining what has been a neutral-to-defensive tilt to our fundamentals-based Outlook rankings.

In this weekly update, I give my view of the current market environment, offer a technical analysis of the S&P 500 chart, review our weekly fundamentals-based SectorCast rankings of the ten U.S. business sectors, and then offer up some actionable trading ideas, including a sector rotation strategy using ETFs and an enhanced version using top-ranked stocks from the top-ranked sectors.

Market overview:

Last Wednesday’s FOMC minutes confirmed investor expectations by indicating that economic data does not yet warrant a fed funds rate hike in June, and investors took this as a reason to finally break out above stubborn technical resistance. Both PMI manufacturing and the Philly Fed index came in with readings that show some growth, but below expectations. The 4-week average on jobless claims fell to 266,000, which is quite promising. Equities remain the favored asset class this year, particularly those playing catch-up, like China, Japan, Europe — and even emerging markets.

It now has been almost three years since the market pulled back at least 10%. Nevertheless, bulls are having a hard time gaining traction after this latest technical breakout (basically flat-lining after last Monday), and a test of conviction is sure to come. The psychological thresholds of Dow at 18,000, S&P 500 at 2100, NASDAQ at 5,000, and Russell 2000 at 1200 all must hold as support levels, or we are back to the market churn, searching for a new catalyst.

The CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX), a.k.a. fear gauge, closed Friday at 12.13 and has held below the 15 fear threshold since a brief spike to that level back on May 6-7. In addition, the volatility of volatility (i.e., the VVIX) reached its lowest level since July 2014. In fact, ConvergEx points out that the expected volatility has fallen over the last month for a range of equities including U.S. small caps, emerging markets, and 8 of 10…