Material Gains:
Heading into the end of January, the materials via the XLB are one of just four major S&P sectors in the red thus far. The have been mostly weighed down by aluminum and steel, with names in the latter dropping hard on a firm tape Thursday. NUE dropped Thursday, even though CLF and X rose by nearly 3%. In regards to aluminum, AA is now nearly 30% off most recent 52 week highs, after recently breaking above a cup base pivot of 24.27 on 1/6. Chemicals and copper have been helping the space. Then of course we have the big elephants in the room with gold and silver. The former is lagging as the SLV is now “just” 10% off its most recent annual highs. The ETF was stopped briefly intraday after filling in a small gap from the 1/6 session, but still CLOSED higher by more than 5%. AG had a nice early ride Thursday, but cooled off by the days end. Still it is now well above a 6 month cup base pivot of 14.67.