Investors wouldn’t be blamed for sizing up the first losing week in three for the S&P 500 and decide to start the weekend early. And stock futures are just barely positive.
Who can blame them after the mixed bag of data this week that has reigniting worries in some corners about whether the Fed could push the economy into a recession with its rate-hike plans?
That brings us to our call of the day from TheoTrade’s chief market technician, Professor Jeff Bierman, who sees a bubble ahead for consumer staples, which he calls a “‘safe haven’ rotation sector that is overbought and overpriced.”
Bierman doesn’t hold back with his warning. “We’re heading into a recession and consumer staples are priced like growth stocks when they’re actually value stocks. The Marubozo signals that we are in for a much deeper correction in consumer staples than we’ve experienced in the past couple of days,” he tells clients (more on Marubozo below).
The group of stocks he’s talking about include Walmart WMT,
“This stock could be cut in half and it’s still too expensive,” Bierman said, adding that it’s the same thing for Coca-Cola, which is trading at trading at 24 times earnings with a return on assets of just 10.
“Every sector of the S&P needs to come to a single-digit multiple before it signals a market bottom. Semiconductors, oil, and retail (in certain parts) are there. Consumer staples — not even close,” Bierman told clients.
Bierman is looking at one major signal for signs of this bubble bursting, that is the “biggest Marubozo in the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF XLP,
What’s a Marubozo? Bierman explains that via candlestick charts, which are used by technical traders and monitor the open and close of a stock on a single day. A Marubozo — from the Japanese word, close cropped — is a long-bodied candlestick that has no shadows — regarded as a strong signal of conviction by sellers or buyers depending on whether its pointed up or down.
Here’s the chart showing that candle headed down:
“The greatest opportunity to short on Wall Street, according to risk/reward, is consumer staples. This is the beginning of the breakdown in consumer staples, for the long term,” he added.
Note that Bierman nailed three big moves for the S&P 500 in 2022.
In December 2021, he forecast a possible 20% drop to 3,900 for the S&P 500 within six months, and it hit 3,930 in early May. Last June, he forecast a rally and recovery to 4,300 — it hit 4,315 by mid-August. Speaking to MarketWatch on Aug. 25, Bierman predicted a retest of around 3,600 for the index, which closed out last September at a new 2022 low of 3,585.
The markets
Stock futures ES00,
Bitcoin BTCUSD,
The buzz
Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
Netflix NFLX,
Opinion: Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings showed Silicon Valley the proper leadership path
Ericsson ERIC.B,
Next week we’ll hear from a massive blue-chip lineup, including Microsoft MSFT,
Genius Group GNS,
Costco Wholesale’s COST,
T-Mobile US TMUS,
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker is due to speak at 9 a.m., followed by existing home sales and then Fed Gov. Christopher Waller will give remarks later.
Best of the web
How Girl Scouts plan to keep women rolling in dough throughout their lives — beyond selling cookies
Prominent New Zealand politicians say “constant vilification,” abuse and personal attacks led to burnout and the resignation of Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern.
Horrifying scenes from a Philadelphia neighborhood show addicts stumbling around as a newly popular and dangerous drug takes hold.
The chart
A popular meme stock — Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY,
“Given the ongoing poor investor sentiment and the weakening macro backdrop, it is not uncommon to see sporadic short squeezes driven and then chased by retail investors,” said Marco Iachini, senior vice president, Giacomo Pierantoni, head of data and Lucas Mantle, data science analyst at Vanda Research, in a note.
“In general, we still view any sustained meme rally as unlikely unless markets enter a more friendly macro regime (goldilocks, or postrecession rebound). As a result, we expect BBBY to sell off over the next few days as retail traders rush to lock in profits before too late,” they said.
The tickers
These were the top searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m. Eastern:
Ticker | Security name |
TSLA, |
Tesla |
BBBY, |
Bed Bath & Beyond |
GNS, |
Genius Group |
GME, |
GameStop |
AMC, |
AMC Entertainment |
NFLX, |
Netflix |
AAPL, |
Apple |
MULN, |
Mullen Automotive |
NIO, |
NIO |
WISA, |
Wisa Technologies |
Random reads
What real estate slowdown? Joshua tree’s iconic, mirror-walled mansion goes on the market for $18m
Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box. The emailed version will be sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern.
Listen to the Best New Ideas in Money podcast with MarketWatch reporter Charles Passy and economist Stephanie Kelton.