Tech-Driven Rally Propels MAG7 to New Highs as NAS100 Outshines

The reaction in markets is what interests the most, and on the day, despite US Treasuries finding form, we’ve seen broad USD strength, the S&P500 has pushed to its 55th new all-time high in 2024, while gold and crude are largely unchanged. We also see sizeable dispersions in the daily returns in the crypto space, with XRP and Chainlink arguable the standout plays, with 23% and 41% gains respectively on the day.

In the volatility (vol) space, we see the VIX trading lower at 13.5% - the lowest level since July and at levels more aligned with S&P500 20-day realised vol. Equity hedges have been unwound, which speaks to a market confident of a grind higher into year-end. Another way to visualise the subdued equity vol is in the daily high-low trading ranges, and on the day the S&P500 has tracked a meagre 18-handle range – one of the lowest high-low ranges of the year, and well below the 5-day average of 34-handles.

Removing downside hedges makes sense given the largest drawdown in the S&P500 in Q4 has been 3.1%, and hedges cost money and subtract from performance if equity is moving higher. On the day we’ve seen a solid bid in comms services names (Meta & Alphabet), tech and consumer discretionary – said another way, the MAG7 index (+1.9%) has broken out to a new ATH, with all 7 MAG7 constituents rising on the day. Microsoft and Meta would be my picks that lead us higher from here, with MSFT filling the gap from the 31 Oct, where a break of $432.23 would suggest a continuation rally into $440.

Naturally, when tech and the big discretionary plays are firing up, it’s the NAS100 which has outperformed, and we see NAS100 futures 120p from testing the former ATH at 21,340.

We’ve seen solid moves in European equity too, and notably in the German DAX which is in beast mode and doing everything right technically – happy to hold longs here until the index has a daily close below the 5-day EMA.

French equity is the exception, with the CAC40 closing unchanged, which is quite a solid result given the brewing political angst. Certainly, we’ve seen the political risk expressed in the EUR, which is lower on the day against all G10 currencies, and notably vs the JPY and USD. We can add negative revisions to the French and German manufacturing PMIs, which make for sobering viewing, and the upshot has been broad EUR selling.

EURUSD hit a low of 1.0461 before the buyers stepped in – we can attribute a degree of the move lower to an improved US ISM manufacturing report (at 48.4 vs 47.5 eyed), although we did see some modest USD selling late in the session as Fed gov Waller signaled that he is leaning on a December rate cut and that rates are still “some distance from neutral”. US interest rate swaps now price at 79% chance the Fed cut by 25bp on 18 Dec.

Equity and bond vol may be headed lower, but FX vol is alive and well with EURUSD 1-month implied vol at 8.66% and the 92nd percentile of the 12-month range. Buying EUR vol certainly made sense given the uncertainty of the ECBs (and the Fed’s) next move and the French political risk premium. CAD vols also screen well, with options traders seeing increased movement in USDCAD and AUDCAD.

On the subject of movement, we can always find it in the crypto markets, and while Bitcoin (-2.5%) and Ethereum (-2.7%) take a backseat, it’s XRP that’s getting the lion’s share of trader attention with its punchy 23% rally on the day. The daily chart looks ridiculous and highlights the explosive 450% gain seen since the US election. XRP Volumes are tracking north of $5b on the day, which is higher than what’s traded on BTC, with the gains taking its market cap to $134b – the third biggest coin in the crypto sphere.

Grossly overbought, and with a 10-day volatility of 150%, chasing XRP upside from here comes with significant risk and the fact I’m focused on it suggests we’ve likely hit peak sentiment – but as know what is overbought can stay overbought for some time.

Looking ahead, we see a largely positive open for Asia with the ASX200 set to outperform with the index set to open nicely above 8500 and to new highs. Event risk in the session ahead comes in on the light side, with Swiss CPI and US Job openings (JOLTS) the key events on the radar.

Good luck to all.