Dan Niles

S&P Likely Faces Modest Pullback After Nine‑week Rally

After shrugging off $AVGO -12.6% on Thursday, the strong jobs report drove the 2yr yld +10bps to the highest levels since early 2025 & S&P -2.6% on Fri. For the wk, S&P/Nas/SOXX/Mag7 were -2.6%/-4.7%/-4.7%/-5.8% despite oil -3% to $91. This is what I posted on X on last Sunday night “Over the near-term, the overall market at some point will need to take a breather from increasingly overbought technical conditions. After nine straight weekly gains, the S&P is now up 19% from its recent closing low on March 30th. But I feel like any losses will be contained to the typical ~5% pullback which is typically seen three to four times per year.” After being up for nine straight weeks, the S&P went from an all-time closing high on Tuesday June 2nd and 14-day RSI of 75 to an RSI of 49 on Friday June 5th and down 3.0% from that Tuesday level. During the internet infrastructure buildout between December 31, 1994 and the peak on March 10, 2000, the S&P tripled, the Nasdaq went up 6.7x and the SOXX Index advanced 9.5x. The S&P during this time had its 14-day RSI cross below 70 (overbought level) fifty times. 36% of the time, that day was the low point before it crossed back above 70 again. 42% of the time the low was reached within 2 trading days and 62% within three days. The average was 10 trading days to hit a short-term low and down 2.5% on average from the overbought level before the advance started to the next overbought reading. Next week, there will be several potential market moving events. The $AAPL WWDC is on Monday. With the stock price surge into this event, a sell the news reaction would not be surprising much like with recent tech results. But I am bullish longer-term given after a 2 year wait we should finally get an AI infused iPhone. I am also very bullish on the larger form factor of a foldable phone that has driven major upgrade cycles in the past. Samsung introduced a foldable in 2019. CPI on Wednesday will be closely watched along with how bond yields react. $ORCL results are also that day which should be solid given recent commentary from major customer OpenAI as well as related hyper-scaler cloud results. Having said that, a new CFO may want to set very achievable initial FY27 guidance that could disappoint. The ECB is likely to raise rates on Thursday since being on hold after cutting rates in June of 2025 to 2.0%. Commentary will likely set the bar for the Fed in the following week. Over the long-term I remain bullish given: 1) S&P earnings are expected to increase 25% this year driven by the advent of Agentic AI, 2) I believe oil prices will come down to the $80ish level given the political toll it is extracting on the US administration every day that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and 3) new Fed Chairman Warsh is likely to push back against calls to raise rates. I view this recent pullback as well needed to work off the recent froth versus marking "the top." All the best in the week ahead.