"The recent degrossing activity in US Info Tech was the largest in the past decade"

1. Factory orders. Factory orders rose 1.5% MoM in March (vs. 0.5% est) following an upwardly revised 0.3% gain in February. Ex-transportations orders grew 1.6% while core capital goods orders (business investment proxy) jumped by 3.4%, the strongest gain since Jul'20.

2. Brent futures. "Both the July (orange) and December (blue) Brent Crude Oil Futures Contracts are at new highs. The December contract is now signaling that the market expects crude oil to be above $90 for the next seven months."

3. Hedge funds vs. Tech. "Hedge funds sharply unwound risk in Info Tech stocks for a second straight week ... In % terms on a trailing 2-week basis excluding late Jan/early Feb '21 amid the meme stock frenzy, the recent degrossing activity in US Info Tech was the largest in the past decade (-2.7 z score)."

4. Retail vs. Tech. "Funds are selling while retail is buying. The 2nd-largest hedge fund selling in tech in a decade meets the 3rd-largest retail fund flow into $QQQ."

5. Up days vs. down days. "Since the Iran War started, the market has been more volatile on up days than down days (SPX realized vol of 16.9% on up days vs. 14.6% on down days) which is extremely unusual. Typically, stocks are more volatile on down days … It suggests investors were well hedged coming into March and it's the rally higher that's caught people off guards."

ICYMI