The market rallied off the lows of the session on Monday. All the major indices closed lower, but looking under the hood, it wasn’t alarming.

NYSE

• Advancers: 1,291
• Decliners: 1,625
• Up Volume: 1.61 billion
• Down Volume: 2.23 billion
• New Highs: 120
• New Lows: 14

NASDAQ

• Advancers: 1,175
• Decliners: 1,913
• Up Volume: 1.08 billion
• Down Volume: 1.40 billion
• New Highs: 94
• New Lows: 35

It was interesting that much was made of the return of FAANG, which could be happening at the detriment of other High-beta names that trade on the NASDAQ.

By the way, the FAANG names cover several sectors:

• Facebook (Communications Services) +3.1%
• Apple (Technology) +0.5%
• Amazon (Consumer Discretionary) +1.5%
• Netflix (Communication Services) -1.8%
• Google/Alphabet (Communication Services) +0.6%

The only loser was Netflix, which is still up 31.2% in 2019.  

Home Sweet Home?

Going into the final hour of trading, all eleven S&P sectors were lower, and by the closing bell, five eked out gains. The most compelling action came from homebuilders, which continue to anticipate a rebound in the Achilles heel of the U.S. economy.

On that note, there are two great proxies for homebuilders:

The iShares US Home Construction (ITB) exchange traded fund (ETF),which is mostly made up of homebuilders, is up 16.3% this year. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) holds a mix of names beyond homebuilders, including its top holdings, such as Owens Corning (OC), Whirlpool (WHR), and Mohawk Industries (MKH).  This ETF is up 19.6% in 2019 and +26.5% since that Christmas Eve low point.

The XHB chart is impressive, but it’s butting up against the long-term downtrend that traces back to the all-time high point back in March of last year.

Portfolio Approach

We asked subscribers to take profits on positions in Materials, Industrials, and Consumer Staples. The moves were not indictments on the companies or sectors. However, we realized they were stalled and more vulnerable than we’d like in a larger market pullback. On that note, everyone should have greater cash positions.