Under The Radar Moves

As we wrap up and head off to enjoy our weekend, it seems appropriate to highlight some big movers from the week that you may have missed.

The equally-weighted biotech ETF $XBI was up a cool 13.98% this week, buoyed by some M&A activity. 

Technical analysts are pointing to the ETF rebounding at the same level it has back to mid 2017. Meanwhile, fundamental analysts are pointing to measures that suggest the sector has gotten cheap overall given many companies’ major cash piles.

Additionally, while everyone in the commodity market is focused on oil and energy-related futures, there are some big moves happening elsewhere.

Copper was down 6.96%, its third week in a row of losses, and settled at 16-month lows.

Meanwhile, agricultural commodities like Wheat, Soybeans, Corn, and others are quietly coming off their highs.

Cotton had its second major down week, falling nearly 30% since the start of June.

The move lower in commodities may be coming as the market reassesses demand amid rising recession fears. As they like to say in the commodities markets, “the cure for higher prices is often higher prices.

Gold Shimmers Around $2,000/Oz

Precious metals have not gotten much fanfare lately, especially with palladium in a downtrend and platinum and silver stuck in messy ranges. 💤

However, one that continues to pop up on investor and trader radars is gold, which is once again trying to break above $2,000/oz. Below is a chart showing prices stuck in a range for the last 2.5 years, each time failing to sustain a break above resistance. 🔐

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Oil Returns To The Status Quo

The U.S. oil market is returning to its pre-pandemic norms, at least according to the manager of the popular oil ETF $USO. 🛢️

The United States Oil Fund ($USO) has been around since April 2006 and is a futures-based ETF that looks to track the price of U.S. crude oil. It does so by purchasing the front-month sweet light crude oil (WTI) contract, holding it, and then rolling its holdings to the following contract before expiration. 

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Palladium Perks Up

While we’ve already touched on gold moving to fresh all-time highs over the last two weeks, other precious metals are also catching a bid after a rough few years. 👀

Below is a chart that technical analysts have been eying this week as palladium futures attempt to reverse their downward course. The weekly line chart goes back to 2010 and shows prices bouncing back from the $800 to $900 region, which has served as a transition area for buyers/sellers over the last 14 years. 📊

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Gold Soars To All-Time Highs

About a week after the chatter around gold began to pick up on Stocktwits, the shiny metal is hitting new all-time highs. But still, some are perplexed as to why it’s rallying. 🤔

Bears argue that gold should not be rallying in the current environment. After all, inflation continues to trend back toward the Fed’s 2% target, and the economy is holding up well thanks to a strong labor market and consumer spending. And with the risk-free rate still above 5%, some investors and traders argue there are better alternatives to gold and precious metals as a group.

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