Big Caps Take A Break, Metals/Mining Stocks Perk Up.

Price chart analysis and commentary.

The big cap tech and social media names are taking a break after all of the new highs fun. The consensus of analysts seems to remain in place that Fed rate cuts are coming within months but the inflation readings can be read differently. Until an awareness develops — whether suddenly or over time — that stocks do not reflect rate cut reality, we wander around on the price charts.

Here’s the daily price chart for the S&P 500:

Note the steady deterioration of the relative strength index as the negative divergence from price goes on.

The Nasdaq 100’s daily price chart is here:

Just as with the S&P 500, the relative strength index is negatively diverging from the direction of Nasdaq 100 price.

Breadth still stinks as indicated by these “percent of stocks above 20-day moving average:”

The hourly yield chart for the U. S. Treasury’s 10-Year Note is here (basis points):

The red-dotted line indicates the January highs for yields. We’re stuck in a range between 4.33% at the top end and 4.07% at the low end.

Metals and mining stocks had a decent day.

Take a look at the daily price chart for gold miner Agnico Eagle:

Buenaventura rallied further:

Rallied in the morning, I should say, and then pulled back into the close of trading. The relative strength index is suggesting a negative divergence now.

Copper giant Freeport McMoRan broke above the December 2023 resistance and took out a down trend line on good volume:

The mining sector’s Harmony Gold broke continued upward. Here’s the daily price chart:

You could tell something was up when the stock could not break significantly below the December low on 3 separate attempts.

Western Copper broke out on its daily price chart:

The previous resistance from December 2023 proved to be no problem as the AMEX-traded metals company took off on good volume. Note that it’s lightly traded, low priced and that it’s now above both the 50-day and the 200-day moving averages.

What I like about these mining and metals break outs is that the phenomenon is going largely unnoticed as the statisticians, math whizzes and MBAs now running Wall Street money stay highly focused on NVIDIA and their other deeply loved monster cap positions.

Not investment advice. For educational purposes only.