Republic Risk: RED

As I've noted, it's been time to hedge for the last two weeks. A shocking move higher on the VIX today on concerns about interest rates and a possible RATE HIKE... now hits our radar

Good morning:

A touch toward the 50-day moving average gives us our first intraday movement into Red territory on the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY). We will see if this holds for the rest of the day, giving us our first true negative reading since November 2023.

But - if you haven’t hedged yet… now is the time. As I noted in April, today is the final day before tax payments to sell stocks, and that comes with deeper concerns about higher interest rates and the prospect of even “higher for longer.”

Energy and materials remain in HEAVY breakout territory - complemented by the same stocks that I highlighted at the start of this commodity run: Occidental (OXY), Apache (APA), and Devon Energy (DVN).

Technology is under pressure - particularly the semiconductor space - as capital flows from this sector to energy/materials. Gold is at a new all-time high.

The SPY is breaking down…

As is the underlying S&P 500 Index.