Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets / Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>The bullish outlook we initiated in early November 2023 remains intact. The SPX and QQQ still refuse to close below their 20-day MAs/21-day EMAs for more than 2-3 consecutive days.</li>
<li>Even if/when they do, important supports are close by, including 4983-5050 on the S&amp;P 500 and $425-$433 on QQQ (gap supports from 2/22/24). Anything above 4800 SPX is a buy.</li>
<li>We continue to get an ever-increasing number of global indexes/Sectors with long-term breakouts, the latest being the MSCI Emerging Market and Frontier indexes. Clearly risk-on behavior.</li>
</ul>


The bullish outlook we initiated in early November 2023 remains intact. The SPX and QQQ still refuse to close below their 20-day MAs/21-day EMAs for more than 2-3 consecutive days.
Even if/when they do, important supports are close by, including 4983-5050 on the S&amp;P 500 and $425-$433 on QQQ (gap supports from 2/22/24). Anything above 4800 SPX is a buy.
We continue to get an ever-increasing number of global indexes/Sectors with long-term breakouts, the latest being the MSCI Emerging Market and Frontier indexes. Clearly risk-on behavior.


Long-Term Breakouts for Emerging and Frontier Markets; Treasury Yields and Commodities Rising YTD

<ul>
<li>While the market remains in consolidation/pullback mode and we are not out of the woods, it is possible that further downside is limited from here on the S&amp;P 500</li>
<li>Since late-February, we've discussed important gap support from 2/22/24 at 4983-5050 on the SPX, with bulls in control if above 4983. Selling last week has simply filled this gap</li>
<li>4920-4950 is now support near last week's lows. Downgrade: Technology (XLK) to market weight. Upgrades: Manufacturing/Industrials (XLI) to overweight and Utilities (XLU) to market weight; individual stock buys highlighted.</li>
</ul>


While the market remains in consolidation/pullback mode and we are not out of the woods, it is possible that further downside is limited from here on the S&amp;P 500
Since late-February, we've discussed important gap support from 2/22/24 at 4983-5050 on the SPX, with bulls in control if above 4983. Selling last week has simply filled this gap
4920-4950 is now support near last week's lows. Downgrade: Technology (XLK) to market weight. Upgrades: Manufacturing/Industrials (XLI) to overweight and Utilities (XLU) to market weight; individual stock buys highlighted.


Shifting Exposure From Growth to Value; Downgrading Technology; Upgrades: Manufacturing & Utilities

<ul>
<li>In our prior EM Strategy (October 2) we discussed that as long as EEM-US is above our important line-in-the-sand at $37, we were buyers on the pullback.</li>
<li>This support level held and EEM-US now displays a bullish 3-month downtrend reversal as the DXY appears to be breaking below $105.70, all bullish signals signaling additional upside-- buy.</li>
<li>We are bullish as long as $36.50-$37 support holds on EEM-US. Our first target is $42, which is 1.5+ year resistance. Remain overweight India, and we're upgrading Poland/Greece to overweight</li>
</ul>


In our prior EM Strategy (October 2) we discussed that as long as EEM-US is above our important line-in-the-sand at $37, we were buyers on the pullback.
This support level held and EEM-US now displays a bullish 3-month downtrend reversal as the DXY appears to be breaking below $105.70, all bullish signals signaling additional upside-- buy.
We are bullish as long as $36.50-$37 support holds on EEM-US. Our first target is $42, which is 1.5+ year resistance. Remain overweight India, and we're upgrading Poland/Greece to overweight


MSCI EM Index Reversing 3-Month Downtrend -- Buy. Remain Overweight India, Upgrading Poland & Greece

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Energy is a lightly held sector, a bit part player in a world dominated by Tech, Financials and the EM Consumer.  The average holding weight among the active EM funds in our analysis stands at just 3.81%, underweight the benchmark by -2.11% on average.The fact that nearly a quarter of active EM managers have no exposure to the Energy sector is perhaps the most telling statistic of just how under-owned the sector is.  Part of that reason, we believe, lies in the risk of not holding Energy when index weights are so low. With Oil prices at multi-year highs, the Energy sector has started to outperform in a big way, with EM Energy outperforming the broader MSCI EM index by over 30% over the last 12 months.  With just 22.7% of funds overweight the benchmark, active EM managers are feeling the pinch.  The risk of being underweight or avoiding the sector completely has moved significantly higher.One of the factors that has driven Energy to the margins of EM investment is the rise of secular growth opportunities in Technology, Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services.  Indeed, the current investor base in Energy is heavily skewed towards the Value and Yield end of the spectrum.  Instead, Aggressive Growth managers have rotated towards the secular growth opportunities within Packaged Software, Internet Retail, Biotechnology and Internet Software/Services.Can the lure of a cyclical growth opportunity such as Energy be enough to win back investment from Growth investors?  If Energy keeps outperforming it will undoubtedly push Growth investors to look for opportunities within the sector.  We identify 2 stocks that already have an investor base among both Aggressive Growth and Growth funds, whilst also appealing to Value investors.  As such, we would expect both to be on the shortlist of the many underweights and non-investors looking to ramp up allocations in the Energy sector as we shift to a new ownership regime.Analysis taken from our EM research, covering 247 active GEM funds with combined AUM of $500bn

Energy is a lightly held sector, a bit part player in a world dominated by Tech, Financials and the EM Consumer.  The average holding weight among the active EM funds in our analysis stands at just 3.81%, underweight the benchmark by -2.11% on average.The fact that nearly a quarter of active EM managers have no exposure to the Energy sector is perhaps the most telling statistic of just how under-owned the sector is.  Part of that reason, we believe, lies in the risk of not holding Energy when index weights are so low. With Oil prices at multi-year highs, the Energy sector has started to outperform in a big way, with EM Energy outperforming the broader MSCI EM index by over 30% over the last 12 months.  With just 22.7% of funds overweight the benchmark, active EM managers are feeling the pinch.  The risk of being underweight or avoiding the sector completely has moved significantly higher.One of the factors that has driven Energy to the margins of EM investment is the rise of secular growth opportunities in Technology, Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services.  Indeed, the current investor base in Energy is heavily skewed towards the Value and Yield end of the spectrum.  Instead, Aggressive Growth managers have rotated towards the secular growth opportunities within Packaged Software, Internet Retail, Biotechnology and Internet Software/Services.Can the lure of a cyclical growth opportunity such as Energy be enough to win back investment from Growth investors?  If Energy keeps outperforming it will undoubtedly push Growth investors to look for opportunities within the sector.  We identify 2 stocks that already have an investor base among both Aggressive Growth and Growth funds, whilst also appealing to Value investors.  As such, we would expect both to be on the shortlist of the many underweights and non-investors looking to ramp up allocations in the Energy sector as we shift to a new ownership regime.Analysis taken from our EM research, covering 247 active GEM funds with combined AUM of $500bn

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One, Periscope Analytics

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Periscope Analytics

Periscope Analytics focuses on event-driven trades across Asia Pacific and provides comprehensive, timely and systematic coverage of index changes to major Asia Pacific indices in a structured manner.

The analysis includes forecasted inclusions and exclusions to all major Asian indices that have significant amount of tracking assets, including estimates of passive buy/sell flow on the stocks. The service also provides commentary and impact of market consultations, ground rule changes, and other events (IPOs, spin-offs, M&A) that could lead to index changes and passive flow.

Periscope Analytics works with multi-strategy hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, stat arb trading groups and long-only investors that invest and trade in the Asia Pacific region with the data being used to trade index rebalances, avoid pre-positioning and passive flow, and to time entry into and exit from stocks.

Event-Driven Trades Across Asia Pacific

Event-Driven

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) / Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>We first wrote about the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ishares-msci-emerging-markets-223f5da3-7054-4e4f-bc55-b7f0852c2581" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31998:1" rel="noopener">iShares Emerging Markets ex-China (EMXC US)</a> ETF 3 years ago when AUM was less than US$500m. AUM now stands at US$11bn.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ishares-msci-emerging-markets-223f5da3-7054-4e4f-bc55-b7f0852c2581" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31998:1" rel="noopener">IShares Emerging Markets ex-China (EMXC US)</a> has outperformed <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ishares-msci-emerging-markets" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:438:1" rel="noopener">iShares Emerging Markets (EEM US)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ishares-msci-emerging-markets-217fc48e-4faa-4bc3-b730-443d6e06728b" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:32500:1" rel="noopener">iShares Emerging Markets Asia (EEMA US)</a> with lower volatility and a lower drawdown.</li>
<li>With the Chinese economy misfiring and markets under pressure, we could see a further shift in positioning away from China and that means inflows to other Emerging Markets.</li>
</ul>


We first wrote about the iShares Emerging Markets ex-China (EMXC US) ETF 3 years ago when AUM was less than US$500m. AUM now stands at US$11bn.

IShares Emerging Markets ex-China (EMXC US) has outperformed iShares Emerging Markets (EEM US) and iShares Emerging Markets Asia (EEMA US) with lower volatility and a lower drawdown.
With the Chinese economy misfiring and markets under pressure, we could see a further shift in positioning away from China and that means inflows to other Emerging Markets.


Emerging Markets Ex-China: Looking Back... And Forward

United States

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is an exchange-traded fund incorporated in the USA. The ETF tracks the performance of the MSCI TR Emerging Markets Index. The ETF holds emerging market stocks that can predominantly be classified as large and mid-cap. It weights the holdings using a market capitalization methodology and rebalances quarterly.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM US)

Long-Term Breakouts for Emerging and Frontier Markets; Treasury Yields and Commodities Rising YTD

Long-Term Breakouts for Emerging and Frontier Markets $EEM $FM; Bullish Outlook Intact on $SPX $QQQ; Treasury Yields and Commodities Rising YTD has...

Vermilion Research

Shifting Exposure From Growth to Value; Downgrading Technology; Upgrades: Manufacturing & Utilities

Shift Exposure From Growth to Value; Downgrading Tech to market weight $XLK; Upgrading Industrials $XLI to Overweight; Upgrading Utilities $XLU to...

Vermilion Research

MSCI EM Index Reversing 3-Month Downtrend -- Buy. Remain Overweight India, Upgrading Poland & Greece

In our prior EM Strategy (10/2/23) we discussed that, if $EEM is above $37, we were buyers on the pullback. Support held and now EEM displays a...

Vermilion Research

EM Energy: Regime Shift

A quarter of active EM managers have no exposure to the Energy sector and only 23% are overweight. With Oil prices at multi-year highs, active EM...

Steven Holden

Emerging Markets Ex-China: Looking Back... And Forward

EMXC's AUM has increased from US$420m in March2021 to US$11bn now. That has led to selling of China stocks and buying of other EM stocks. The U.S....

Brian Freitas