Palladium Pops In “Dash For Trash”

One of the key themes we’ve discussed since early November is money looking for a new home in beaten-down areas of the market. That theme continued today with the Federal Reserve confirming the market’s rate cut bets with a dovish statement and projections. 💸

We saw significant rallies in stocks like Carvana, Upstart, SoFi Technologies, Lucid Group, Rocket Companies, and many more highly-shorted names. But it’s not just happening in the stock market. Assets across the board rallied, including one of this year’s worst performers, palladium.

Below is a chart of palladium futures, which jumped 12% today. That type of move would typically be more than enough to grab people’s attention, but where it’s taking place amplified the importance among traders. 🧭

Palladium’s been in a clear downtrend for the last eighteen months, with a clear downtrend line, keeping a lid on prices. However, prices are now testing that downtrend line again. And they’re doing so while also breaking above its previous price low, something they’ve been unable to do all year. 🤔

Technical analysts say a decisive breakout above this level would confirm that its trend has shifted from down to sideways or up, depending on who you ask. With animal spirits taking hold of the market this week, bulls say this is when palladium and other laggards have their best chance to meaningfully change their trends.

We’ll have to wait and see who is right. But palladium bulls are coming out of the woodwork for the first time in years, and that’s notable to us. 👀

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Precious Metals Slowly Melt Lower

With the stock market catching its breath before a new earnings season begins, we’ve been trying to highlight other market trends. And right now, one of those is in the precious metals section of the commodities space. 👀

Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium are all considered precious metals for those unfamiliar. These metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value…hence the name. *cue the Gollum “my precious” meme.*

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Sugar Hits Sweet Spot As Gold Shines

It was a slow day out there, but several commodities caught traders’ eyes. Let’s see which ones. 👀

First up is sugar futures, which have experienced a nearly 30% decline since the beginning of November. While its major decline is one reason to be on people’s radars, technical traders say prices have reached the 20-20.50 area that served as an inflection point over the last two years.

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A Crude Two Weeks For Energy

The recent carnage in the energy sector has been lost in the shuffle, so let’s take a quick look.

Below is a chart of crude oil’s weekly chart dating back three years. With this week’s decline, prices fell to their lowest level since December 2021. And the one-week rate of change shows this is the largest one-week decline since early 2020. 😬

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Crude Tops 90 As Inflation Ticks Up

Before we get into U.S. data, we need to discuss the European Central Bank’s (ECB) rate decision. The central bank surprised markets by raising rates another 25 bps to 4.00%, marking its tenth consecutive hike. 🔺

Unlike the U.S., Europe has not made as much progress in bringing down inflation, and its economy has not been as resilient. The region started raising rates later than the U.S. and experienced more direct impacts of the war in Ukraine, so it’s understandable that they’d be a bit behind the curve in making progress.

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