Powell finally gave the message that market watchers have been demanding. Now, let’s hope they don’t live to regret it. For the moment, hedge funds and others are tickled pink because they have put on monster bets that the market will go lower. The last time they bet against the stock market like this was the beginning of the pandemic.

Nowhere to Hide

• S&P 500 -3.37%
• NASDAQ Composite -4.10%
• Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) -3.03%
• Russell 2000 (RUT) -3.30%
• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) +0.49%
• Gold -1.16%
• U.S. Dollar (DXY) +0.38%
• Bitcoin (BTC) -4.33%
• Ethereum (ETH) -8.41%

Heat Map

The best performing sector, Energy, was down 1.07% for the session, while growth names took the largest hits.

This was a blanket shellacking that has some contrarian overtures. However, it’s too early to talk about being oversold as the batter is joined to push the market down to the June lows.

For the S&P 500 – all eyes are on the 50-day moving average.

Also, keep an eye on the ten-year yield as it straddles 3.0%.

It will be another week of angst waiting for Friday. This time for - the jobs report.

Portfolio Approach

There are no changes in the Hotline model portfolio.

Today’s Session

The market is off lowest pre-open levels, which gives us good points to watch for pivots.  Key technical levels overall are still in place. Even though Wall Street is playing Taps, the June rally still sports impressive gains.

Make no mistake, Wall Street wants to see this market hammered. Especially hedge funds that got wrecked with late spring shorts but have now reloaded.