US stocks took a breather overnight after three weeks of solid gains. The market is on hold after its strong move as it awaits reports from Nvidia and a few key retailers. The Retail Sector has cooled of late, with Target Corp (TGT US) falling over 2% on Monday after it said it would cut prices on “thousands of everyday essentials”, including milk and diapers, as consumers feel the pinch of the current high inflation environment – we bought JB Hi-Fi (JBH) into weakness locally as the trend unfolds both home and abroad.
- The US S&P500 is rotating around its all-time high; less than 4% below our initial target ~5500 area.
Copper continues to scale new heights; however, although it has already advanced ~30% in 2024, we believe in the bigger picture, the move is in its infancy. “Dr Copper” is not surging higher on global economic strength as has been the case in the past; the current move is largely being driven by the intrinsic need for the industrial metal as the world strives to become carbon neutral. As we saw after the GFC and before COVID, copper is very capable of surging by 2 or 3-fold.
- We are bullish on copper, believing the bull market has further to unfold over the years ahead.