Stocks Consolidate In “Snoozefest”, Precious Metals Show Life, Gun Background Checks and Sales Continue to Soar Amid Civil Unrest

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Large-cap US index ETFs entered today mostly in extreme overbought territory and $QQQ has gone from below its 50-DMA to overbought over the last week. See our Trend Analyzer tool: https://t.co/2BNc9lWDBZ pic.twitter.com/VGZwDC4p6R

— Bespoke (@bespokeinvest) April 6, 2021

Highest % Above 50-Day Average Since Last June pic.twitter.com/9XpAhGGxVH

— Strategas (@StrategasRP) April 6, 2021

No surprise that snoozefest was the lowest volume day (and first day under 10 bil shares traded) in 2021.
Now 4 out last 5 sessions lowest volume days this year. pic.twitter.com/GNnDtMJF8T

— Tom Hearden (@followtheh) April 6, 2021

Stocks entered Tuesday’s session extremely overbought after two big up sessions on Thursday (4/1) and Monday. 89% of S&P components were trading above their 50 DMAs at the open yesterday. So it’s no surprise, in fact it’s technically healthy, that yesterday was a low volume “snoozefest” with the S&P -0.10%, NASDAQ -0.05% and Russell -0.25%.

One asset class that has caught a bid in recent days is the precious metals and their miners. The Gold ETF (GLD) was +0.80%, The Silver ETF (SLV) +1.08%, The Gold Miners ETF (GDX) +1.69%, The Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) +2.55%, The Silver Miners ETF (SIL) +2.57% and the Junior Silver Miners ETF (SILJ) +3.53% yesterday. As a result of this recent strength, they are all starting to look technically healthier (see “Precious Metals Finding Support and Eyeing Breakouts”, BeSpoke, Tuesday April 6).

Gun background checks used to follow a predictable seasonal pattern. Now, all they do is go up. https://t.co/6mxxcOml4a pic.twitter.com/gXsuLDrB0c

— Bespoke (@bespokeinvest) April 5, 2021

Another data point from BeSpoke I found interesting yesterday was that gun background checks continue to surge (see “Another Record in Gun Background Checks”, BeSpoke, Monday April 5). Gun sales at the two leading publicly traded gun manufacturers, Sturm & Ruger (RGR) and Smith & Wesson (SWBI), are surging as well (Top Gun is long RGR and SWBI). Why? Because of all the civil unrest we’ve seen during the pandemic i.e. Black Lives Matter, The Capitol Riot, etc.. However, the stocks continue to be held back by fear of gun control legislation from the Biden Administration.