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Is The Technology Sector Setting Up For A Crash? Part IV

As we continue to get more and more information related to the Coronavirus spreading across Asia and Europe, the one thing we really must consider is the longer-term possibility that major global economies may contract in some manner as the Chinese economy is currently doing.  The news suggests over 700+ million people in China are quarantined.  This is a staggering number of people – nearly double the total population of the entire United States.

If the numbers presented by the Chinese are accurate, the Coronavirus has a very high infection rate, yet a moderately small mortality rate (2~3%).  Still, if this virus continues to spread throughout the world and infects more and more people, there is a very real potential that 20 to 50 million people may be killed because of this event.  It may become one of the biggest Black Swan events in recent history.

We really won’t know the total scope of the damage to the Chinese and Asian economies for another 35+ days – possibly longer.  The information we have been able to pull from available news sources and from the Chinese press is that hundreds of millions are quarantined, the Chinese Central Bank is pouring capital into their markets in order to support their frail economy and, just recently, President Xi suggested stimulus will not be enough – austerity measure will have to be put into place to protect China from creating a massive debt-trap because of this virus.

Austerity is a process of central bank planners cutting expenses, cutting expansion plans, cutting everything that is not necessary and planning for longer-term economic contraction.  It means the Chinese are preparing for a long battle and are attempting to protect their wealth and future from an extreme collapse event.

From an investor standpoint, FANG stocks have outperformed the S&P, NASDAQ and DOW JONES indexes by many multiples over the past 5~6 years.  The chart below highlights the rally in the markets that originated in late 2016 (think 2016 US Presidential Election) and the fact that foreign capital poured into the US stock market chasing expected returns promised by future President Trump.

It becomes very clear that the FANG stocks rallied very quickly after the elections were completed and continued to pull away from valuation levels of the S&P, NASDAQ and DOW JONES US indexes.  How far has the FANG index rallied above the other US major indexes? At some points, the FANG index was 30~40% higher than the biggest, most mature industries within the US.  In late 2018, everything contracted a bit – including the FANG index.

As or right now, the FANG index has risen nearly 274% from October 2014.  The S&P has risen nearly 60% over that same time.  The NASDAQ has risen 140% and the S&P 500 Info Tech Index rose 180%.  The reality is that capital has poured into the technology sector, FANG stocks and various other US stock market indexes chasing this incredible rally event.

(source: https://www.theice.com/fangplus)

This Netflix Weekly chart highlights what we believe are some of the early signs of weakness in the FANG sector.  The sideways FLAG formation suggests NFLX has reached a peak in early 2018 and investors have shied away from pouring more capital into this symbol while the Technology index and FANG index have continued to rally over the past 8+ months.

This Weekly Custom FANG Index chart highlights the rally that took place after October 2018 and continues to drive new highs today.  This move on our Custom FANG index shows a very clear breakout rally taking place which is why we believe more foreign capital poured into the US markets as the US/China trade deal continued to plague the global markets and as BREXIT and other economic issues started to weigh on economic outputs.  What did investors do to avoid these risks?  Pour their capital into the hot US technology sector.

Another chart we like to review is our Custom Technology Index Weekly chart.  This chart shows a similar pattern to the FANG chart above, yet it presents a very clear picture of the excessive price rally and rotation that has taken place over the past 5+ months.  The real risk with this trend is that investors may start to believe “it will go on forever” and “there is no risk in these trades”.  There is a very high degree of risk in these trades.  Once the bubble bursts, the downside move may become very violent and shocking.

A reversion event, bubble burst event, in the technology sector as a result of the economic collapse in China and throughout other areas of the world may break this rally in the technology sector at some point and may push investors to re-evaluate their trading plans.  Until investors understand the risks setting up because of the Coronavirus and the potential for a 20%, 30%, even 40% decrease in economic activity and consumer spending may finally push global investors to really think about the true valuations within the FANG/Technology sector.

We writing this article to alert you to the very real fact that “what goes up – must come down” at some point.  Pay attention to how this plays out and what may cause global investors to suddenly change their opinion of the Technology sector.   A pullback in this sector may result in a -40% to -50% price reversion.

We believe the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in China may be enough to put a massive dent in future expectations for 2020 and 2021.  You simply can’t have a major global economic collapse in this manner without having some type of cross-over event.  As we learned in 2008-09 with the US credit crisis – when a major economy collapses its assets and financial markets, the ripples spread across the globe.  China may become the next financial crisis event for the new decade.

Join my Swing Trading ETF Wealth Building Newsletter if you like what you read here and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Is The Technology Sector Setting Up For A Crash? Part III

FANG stocks seem uniquely positioned for some extreme rotation over the next 6+ months.  The continued capital shift that has taken place over the past 5+ years has driven investment and capital into the Technology sector – much like the DOT COM rally.  The euphoric rally in the late 1990s seems quite similar to today.

The biggest difference this time is that global central banks have pushed an easy-money monetary policy since just after 2000.  The policies and rallies that took place after 9/11 were a result of policies put in place by George W. Bush and Alan Greenspan.  Our research team believes these policies set up a  process where foreign markets gorged on cheap US Dollars to expand industry and manufacturing throughout the late 1990s and most of the early 2000s.  This process sets up a scenario where the US pumped US Dollars into the global markets after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and foreign markets gobbled this capital up knowing they could expand infrastructure, industry, and manufacturing, then sell these products back to the US and other markets for profits.  Multiple QE attempts by the US Fed continued to fuel this capital shift.

It wasn’t until after 2008-09 when the US Fed entered a period of extreme easy money policy.  This easy money policy populated an extensive borrow-spend process throughout most of the foreign world.  Remember, as much as the US was attempting to support the US markets, the foreign markets were actively gorging even more on this easy money from the US and didn’t believe anything would change in the near future.  China/Asia and most of the rest of the world continued to suck up US Dollars while pouring more and more capital into industry, manufacturing and finance/banking.

This process of borrowing from the US while tapping into the expanding US markets created a wealth creation process throughout much of Asia/China that, in turn, poured newly created wealth back into the US stock and real estate markets over the past 7+ years.  It is easy to understand how the trillions pushed into the markets by the US Fed created opportunity and wealth throughout the globe, then turned into investments into US assets and the US stock market.  Foreign investors wanted a piece of the biggest and most diverse economy on the planet.

This foreign investment propelled a new rally in the Technology sector, which aligned with a massive build-out of technology throughout the world and within China.  Remember, in the late 1990s, China was just starting to develop large manufacturing and industry.  By the mid-2000s, China had already started building huge city-wide industry and manufacturing.  But in the late-2000s, China went all-in on the industry and manufacturing build-out.  This created a massive “beast” in China that depends on this industry to support finance and capital markets.  This lead to the recent rise in the global and US markets as all of this capital rushed around the globe looking for the best returns and safest locations for investment.

FANG stocks have taken center stage and the recent rally reminds of us the DOT COM rally from the 1990s.  Could the Coronavirus break this trend and collapse future expectations within the global markets?  Is it possible that we are setting up another DOT COM-like bubble that is about to break?

THE WEEKLY CHART OF APPLE (AAPL)

This first Weekly chart of Apple (AAPL) shows just how inflated price has rallied since August 2019.  The share price of AAPL has risen from $220 to almost $320 in the last 6 months – an incredible +49%.  We attribute almost all of this incredible rise to the Capital Shift that took place in the midst of the US/China trade war.  Foreign capital needed to find a place to protect itself from currency devaluation and to generate ROI.  What better place than the US Technology Sector.

THE WEEKLY CHART OF FACEBOOK (FB)

Facebook has also seen a nice appreciation in value from the lows in late 2018.  From the August 2019 date, though, Facebook has seen share prices rise about +25% – from the $180 level to the $225 level.  Although many traders may not recognize the Double Top pattern set up near the $220 level, we believe this setup may be an early warning that Technology may be starting to “rollover” as capital may begin searching for a safer environment and begin exiting the Technology sector.

THE WEEKLY CHART OF GOOGLE (GOOG)

Google (Alphabet), GOOG, is another high-flier with share prices rising from $1200 to $1500 from August 2019 till now – a +28% price increase.  We can clearly see that GOOG is well above the historic price channel set up by the rotation in late 2018.  We believe resistance near $1525 will act as a price boundary and may prompt a downside price rotation associated with the rotation away from risk within the Technology sector.  Any downside move, if it happens, could prompt a price decline targeting $1350 or lower.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Remember, we are warning of a change in how capital operates within the markets.  The Capital Shift that has continued to drive advancing share prices in Technology may be nearing an end.  It does not mean the capital shift will end, it just means this capital may rotate into other sectors in an attempt to avoid risks and seek out returns.  We believe this is a real possibility because we believe the Coronavirus in China is disrupting the markets (supply/manufacturing and consumer spending) by such a large factor that we believe capital will be forced to identify new targets for returns.  In other words, we believe the Technology Sector may be at very high risk for a price reversion event if this “black swan” event continues to disrupt the global markets.

Let’s face it, a very large portion of our technology originates and is manufactured in China.  In fact, a very large portion of almost everything we consume is manufactured in China.  Heck, the cat food I buy every week is made in China.  If this Coronavirus continues to force China to shut down large sections of their nation and manufacturing while it continues to spread, then the only real outcome for the rest of the world is that “China manufacturing capabilities will be only 10~20% of previous levels” (if that).

Once supply runs out for most items originating from China, then we are going to have to deal with a new reality of “what are the real future expectations going to really look like” and that is why we are preparing our followers and friends the Technology sector may be one of the biggest rotating sectors in the near future.

Join my Swing Trading ETF Wealth Building Newsletter if you like what you read here and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

NOTICE: Our free research does not constitute a trade recommendation or solicitation for our readers to take any action regarding this research.  It is provided for educational purposes only.  Our research team produces these research articles to share information with our followers/readers in an effort to try to keep you well informed.  Visit our web site (www.thetechnicaltraders.com) to learn how to take advantage of our members-only research and trading signals.