The Day Hagan/Ned Davis Research Smart Sector® with Catastrophic Stop strategy entered this month recommending a fully invested position. The NDR Catastrophic Stop model is based on the combination of two proprietary composites: 1) the Internal Composite (technical and price-related indicators) and 2) the External Composite (fundamental, economic, interest rate, and behavioral/sentiment indicators). Each composite is one-half of the overall score.

The sector model maintained mixed leadership this month. Entering May, Financials, Industrials, Real Estate, and Utilities are above benchmark weight. Communication Services, Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Materials, and Health Care are below benchmark weight.

Full strategy commentary: NDRSASDH202405031

Visit the Day Hagan research page for access to additional commentary and webcasts.

Other posts

Thoughts From The Divide: Know when to Fold‘Em

BY JON WEBB
President Trump told us that the U.S. would get "a total of 55% tariffs" with China's tariffs set at 10%, adding that "Full magnets and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to”. A Chinese spokesman was more reserved. Lutnick referred to the agreement as a "handshake for a framework" which didn’t seem entirely consistent with Trump’s assessment. Usually, in these matters the best way of telling what happened is to look at the US-listed Rare Earth miners – MP Materials fell 8% yesterday, but was up 14% today, which might suggests that the market the market remains skeptical about China resuming rare earth supplies. Read more →

Thoughts From the Divide: The (Golden) Path

BY JON WEBB
While the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it appears that the “golden path” to a soft landing (which by way of reminder is a “triumph of hope over experience”, if you ask Mr. Summers) is paved with rate cuts. In an interview earlier this week, the Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee cast another vote in favor of “adjustment cuts”, saying that “You risk the golden path if you are going to be as restrictive as we are now”. Meanwhile, Jerome Powell was quick to assure the audience during his latest interview that “today I am not going to be sending any signals, one way or the other on any particular meeting” as far as rate cuts are concerned. However, that did not prevent the Chair from referring to ol’ reliable of monetary policy, “long and variable lags”, to explain why, “if you wait until inflation gets all the way down to 2%, you’ve probably waited too long”. Read more →

Thoughts From The Divide: A Giant Global Margin Call

BY JON WEBB
It’s possible to read too much into things. Consider it a flaw in our nature. But when we are told the “Worst of market sell-off might be over but hold on tight”, we can’t help but wonder about the hedged language. After all, if Goldman sees recent price action as prompted by a “giant global margin call”, surely the sell-off is an opportunity? Apparently not, as the GS note in question suggested that the flows they have seen were not consistent with “a ton of selling”. Is this diagnostically useful, and if so, in what way? If forced to offer an opinion (and we are), we would agree with GS that volumes have certainly not been indicative of capitulation. In fact, recent volatility might be better thought of as evidence of preternaturally low levels of liquidity. That in itself begs the question of why liquidity is so poor. August doldrums, or evidence of a Potemkin market? Read more →
Back to all posts →