Consumer discretionary stocks are the most sensitive to the market cycle, and right now they’re giving no indication that cycle is about to turn, according to one of Wall Street’s most closely followed technical analysts.
“Discretionary names historically deteriorate before the cycle ends,” said Jeff deGraaf, founder and chairman of Renaissance Macro Research, in a Wednesday note. “That makes them excellent contrarian proxies for the market cycle.
He pointed to the charts below, tracking the outright and relative performance of the Russell 3000 equal-weight consumer discretionary sector, to make the point. Stocks were putting in a mixed performance Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.46% up 90 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.26% fell 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.33% dropped 1.1%. Equities wobbled last week as fears of an inflationary surge triggered a jump in bond yields. But if discretionary stocks are a guide, there’s little evidence of price pressures so far.
“We could be wrong, but discretionary names are likely to weaken as we see sustained inflationary pressure build and the costs of consumer borrowing and energy erode their purchasing power ,” deGraaf wrote.
What is a market cycle No two crashes have the same catalyst
Buying the dip 😎