Report
Dave Nicoski ...
  • Ross LaDuke
EUR 44.79 For Business Accounts Only

Vermilion Compass: Weekly Equity Strategy

New All-Time Highs Validates Our Bullish Outlook

We continue to view the latest pullback to the 100-day MA on the S&P 500 as healthy and normal within the ongoing bull market, and our bullish outlook (since early-November 2023) remains intact. Throughout the last week of April, we discussed the possibility that further downside was limited (4/23/24 Compass) and the mounting evidence that led us to believe the lows were likely in for this pullback (4/30/24 Compass). Market dynamics remain healthy and the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and DJI are all breaking out to new all-time highs, helping validate our bullish outlook.

S&P 500, Russell 2000. The S&P 500 gapped-up to reverse its 1-month downtrend on 5/3/24, followed by another upside gap on 5/6/24, and yet another on 5/15/24 on the breakout to all-time highs; all of these gaps remain unfilled which signals upside power, a very bullish sign. We continue to expect new uptrends to form, resulting in significant upside ahead. These gaps at 5250-5263, 5127-5142, and 5073-5101 are now areas to expect short-term support, if tested. The Russell 2000 (IWM) is back to test major resistance at $210 for the third time, and we expect the third time to be the charm... see charts below.
Risk-On. All-time highs on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and DJI, with multiple upside gaps left unfilled are huge risk-on signals in their own right, but there is so much more clear evidence that supports our bullish outlook moving forward, including: (1) Treasury yields and (2) the U.S. dollar (DXY) display local tops that could potentially be major tops. (3) Bond market volatility (MOVE index) is at 2.25-year lows. (4) High yield spreads are hitting fresh 2.25-year narrows. (5) Important energy commodities -- WTI crude oil and gasoline (UGA) -- display local tops that could potentially be major tops. (6) Defensive Sectors including Staples (XLP) and Health Care (XLV) remain below their October 2023 RS lows, while Energy (XLE) is at 2-month RS lows (Energy is the top "defensive" Sector during inflationary periods). (7) Semiconductors (SMH, SOXX) remain long-term leadership. (8) Gold and silver are breaking out to multi-year highs. (9) Major non-U.S. equity indexes (MSCI ACWI, ACWI ex-US, EAFE, and Emerging Markets) are hitting multi-year highs... see pages 3-4.
Underlyings
Alcoa Corporation

Alcoa is a vertically integrated aluminum company comprised of bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminum production (smelting, casting, and rolling), and energy generation. Through direct and indirect ownership, the company has 30 operating locations in nine countries around the world, situated primarily in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Spain, and United States.

Alumina Ltd ADS

Ardmore Shipping

Century Aluminum Company

Century Aluminum is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company produces primary aluminum and operates aluminum reduction facilities in the U.S. and Iceland. The company's principal subsidiaries are: Century Kentucky, Inc., which operates a primary aluminum reduction facility in Hawesville, KY; Nordural ehf, which operates a primary aluminum reduction facility in Grundartangi, Iceland; Century Aluminum Sebree LLC, which operates a primary aluminum reduction facility in Robards, KY; Century Aluminum of South Carolina, which operates a primary aluminum reduction facility in Goose Creek, SC; and Nordural Helguvik ehf, which owns a greenfield primary aluminum project in Helguvik, Iceland.

Constellium SE Class A

Constellium N.V. designs and manufactures a range of innovative specialty rolled and extruded aluminum products, serving primarily the aerospace, packaging and automotive end-markets. Co. has a strategic footprint of manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Europe and China. Co.'s product portfolio commands higher margins as compared to less differentiated, more commoditized fabricated aluminum products, such as common alloy coils, paintstock, foilstock and soft alloys for construction and distribution. Co. organizes its business around three operating segments: Aerospace & Transportation, Packaging & Automotive Rolled Products, and Automotive Structures & Industry.

Costamare Inc.

Costamare is an international owner of containerships. Co. is engaged in chartering vessels to many of the world's liner companies. As of Feb 23 2018, Co. has a fleet of 71 containerships with a total capacity in excess of 466,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs). Co.'s strategy is to time charter its containerships to a geographically diverse, financially strong and loyal group of liner companies. Co.'s containerships operate primarily under multi-year charters and therefore are not subject to the effect of seasonal variations in demand. Some of Co.'s customers are A.P. Moller-Maersk, MSC, Evergreen, Hapag Lloyd and COSCO.

DHT Holdings Inc.

Diana Shipping Inc.

Diana Shipping is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is a global provider of shipping transportation services. Co. specializes in transporting dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes. As of Dec 31 2017, Co.'s operating fleet consisted of 50 dry bulk carriers, of which 22 are Panamax, five are Kamsarmax, five are Post-Panamax, fourteen are Capesize and four are Newcastlemax vessels, having a combined carrying capacity of approximately 5.8 million dwt.

Dorian LPG

Euronav NV

Euronav is a provider of maritime shipping and offshore services engaged primarily in the transportation and storage of crude oil. As of Apr. 4, 2017, Co. owned and operated a modern fleet of 55 vessels (including four chartered-in vessels) with an aggregate carrying capacity of approximately 13.7 million deadweight tons, or dwt, consisting of 31 very large crude carriers, one ultra large crude carrier, 21 Suezmax vessels, and two floating, storage and offloading vessels. Co. has two operating segments: the operation of crude oil tankers on the international markets (tankers) and the floating production, storage and offloading operations.

FRONTLINE PLC

GATX Corporation

GATX is a global railcar lessor. The Rail North America segment provides railcars pursuant to full-service leases under which it maintains the railcars, pays ad valorem taxes and property insurance, and provides other ancillary services. The Rail International segment leases railcars pursuant to full-service leases under which it maintains the railcars and provides services according to customer requirements. The Portfolio Management segment leases aircraft spare engines, as well as five liquefied gas-carrying vessels. The American Steamship Company segment provides waterborne transportation of dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal, limestone aggregates, and metallurgical limestone.

Global Ship Lease Inc. Class A

Global Ship Lease is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in the business of owning and chartering out containerships under fixed rate charters to container liner companies.

Golar LNG Limited

Golar LNG is a midstream liquefied natural gas (LNG) company based in Bermuda. Co. is engaged in the transportation, regasification, liquefaction and trading of LNG. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Co. is engaged in the acquisition, ownership, operation and chartering of LNG carriers and floating storage regasification units (FSRUs), and the development of liquefaction projects such as Floating Liquefaction Natural Gas Vessels. Co. owns and operates a fleet of 19 LNG carriers and seven FSRUs, and under management agreements operates Golar LNG Partner LP's fleet of six FSRUs and four LNG carriers.

Golden Ocean Group Ltd

GREENBRIER COMPANIES INC COM

HIMALAYA SHIPPING LTD.

HOWMET AEROSPACE INC COM

International Seaways Inc.

Kirby Corporation

Kirby operates tank barge. The company's marine transportation segment provides marine transportation services, operating tank barges and towing vessels transporting bulk liquid products. The company transports petrochemicals, black oil, refined petroleum products and agricultural chemicals by tank barge. The company's distribution and services segment, sells genuine replacement parts, provides service mechanics to overhaul and repair engines, transmissions, reduction gears and related oilfield services equipment, rebuilds component parts or diesel engines, transmissions and reduction gears, and related equipment used in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway and other industrial applications.

Matson Inc.

Matson is a holding company engaged in the provision of ocean transportation and logistics services. The company's Ocean transportation segment business is conducted through Matson Navigation Company, Inc., which provides a lifeline of ocean freight transportation services to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska and Guam, and to other island economies in Micronesia and operates an expedited service from China to Long Beach, CA, and provides services to Okinawa, Japan and various islands in the South Pacific. The company's Logistics business is conducted through Matson Logistics, Inc., an asset-light business that provides a variety of logistics services to its customers.

Navigator Holdings

Navios Maritime Partners

Navios Maritime Partners L.P. is an international owner and operator of dry cargo and container vessels. The Company is engaged in the seaborne transportation services of a range of dry cargo commodities, including iron ore, coal, grain and fertilizer, and also containers, chartering its vessels under medium to long-term charters. It focuses on providing seaborne shipping services under long-term time charters. As of December 31, 2016, it controlled 12 Panamax vessels, nine Capesize vessels, three Ultra-Handymax vessels and seven container vessels. Panamax vessels are vessels capable of carrying a range of dry cargo commodities, including iron ore, coal, grain and fertilizer and being accommodated in various discharge ports. Capesize vessels are dedicated to the carriage of iron ore and coal. Ultra-Handymax vessels are similar to Panamax vessels although with less carrying capacity, and have self-loading and discharging gear on board to accommodate undeveloped ports.

Norsk Hydro ASA ADS

Overseas Shipholding Group

Overseas Shipholding Group is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company owns and operates a fleet of oceangoing vessels engaged in the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products in the U.S. Flag trades. The company has one reportable business segment. The company's U.S. Flag Fleet consists of various owned and chartered-in Jones Act Handysize Product Carriers and Articulated Tug Barges and non-Jones Act U.S. Flag Handysize Product Carriers that participate in the U.S. Maritime Security Program. Under the Jones Act, shipping between U.S. ports, including the movement of Alaskan crude oil to U.S. ports, is reserved for U.S. Flag vessels.

Rio Tinto PLC CEDEAR

Safe Bulkers Inc.

Safe Bulkers is an international provider of marine drybulk transportation services, transporting bulk cargoes, particularly coal, grain and iron ore, along worldwide shipping routes for consumers of marine drybulk transportation services. As of Feb. 9, 2018, Co. had a fleet of 39 drybulk vessels, with an aggregate carrying capacity of 3,513,800 dwt and an average age of 7.6 years. Co. deploys its vessels on both period time charters and spot time charters. The vessels on period time charters provide Co. with relatively stable cash flow and utilization rates, while the vessels in the spot market allow Co. to maintain its flexibility in low charter market conditions.

Scorpio Tankers Inc.

SFL Corporation Limited

Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Star Bulk Carriers is an international company providing worldwide transportation solutions in the drybulk sector through its vessels-owning subsidiaries for a range of customers of major and minor bulk cargoes including iron ore, coal, grain, cement, fertilizer, along worldwide shipping routes. As of Dec 31 2016, Co. owned and operated a fleet of 73 vessels consisting primarily of Newcastlemax, Capesize as well as Kamsarmax, Ultramax and Supramax vessels with a carrying capacity between 52,055 dwt and 209,537 dwt. Co.'s vessels transport a range of major and minor bulk commodities, including ores, coal, grains and fertilizers, along worldwide shipping routes.

Teekay Corporation

Teekay Tankers

Trinity Industries Inc.

Trinity Industries is a provider of railcar products and services in North America. The company has the following reportable segments: Railcar Leasing and Management Services Group, which provides operating leases for freight and tank railcars, as well as originates and manages railcar leases for third-party investors and provides fleet maintenance and management services to industrial shippers; Rail Products Group, which manufactures freight and tank railcars in North America used for transporting a variety of liquids, gases, and dry cargo, and also provides a range of maintenance services and solutions; and All Other, which includes the company's highway products business.

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd.

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation

Wabtec primarily serves the global freight rail and passenger transit industries. The company provides its products and services through two segments: Freight, which primarily manufactures and provides aftermarket parts and services for new locomotives; provides components for new and existing locomotives and freight cars; builds new commuter locomotives; and supplies rail control and infrastructure products, among others: and Transit, which primarily manufactures and services components for new and existing passenger transit vehicles, mainly regional trains, high speed trains, subway cars, light-rail vehicles and buses; and supplies rail control and infrastructure products, among others.

Provider
Vermilion Research
Vermilion Research

Vermilion Research delivers timely, actionable, and unique research inputs to professional investors. Our research strategists highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various proprietary technical indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. We believe our research methodology, which is not limited by industry sector or market capitalization, enables us to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing all actively traded stocks into coherent sectors, then into logical industry groups. We then apply our proprietary relative strength tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sectors or groups, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. Vermilion offers U.S. and global equity market research products. Vermilion’s research team, which has received numerous awards and accolades, has a combined 70 year of experience in the analysis of investment securities.

Analysts
Dave Nicoski

Ross LaDuke

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