Rick Ackerman

The dog days of summer have returned with a vengeance to Florida this year, especially in my home. The air conditioner's condenser coil sprang a leak, which is hardly unusual considering that it's eight years old. What is unusual, and causing more than a little inconvenience, is that the broken part will take a month for the factory to replace. So far, I haven't been able to determine why the manufacturer, Lennox, would be having such a hard time scrounging up the part. Regardless, if you're in the market for a new cooling system, consider Trane, Rheem or some other brand before you plunk down $8k on a Lennox system that could fail in the intense summer heat of such hellholes as Miami, Phoenix, Houston or Charleston. The interior temperature of my home has continued to rise daily and is now at 91 degrees. There is no cooling it off at night, either, since the air has been soupy, with temperatures only a few degrees cooler than during the daytime. It's an odd time of year for the pace of so many things to be quickening. The stock market, for one. Far from being locked in summer doldrums, the bull rally in the lunatic stocks has lurched into high gear and is being loosely controlled by the one-decision whizzes who manage money. They are not so much pushing shares higher as allowing them to rise on urgent short-covering to speculative heights that in the past have invariably led to disaster. The talking heads say investors sniff Fed easing, finally -- and who could begrudge them a wild display of revelry to make up for their merely festive toga party earlier in the year, after they realized the central bank had no plans to loosen. Six-Three = MAGA High-Fives On the

Bulls took charge last week, a development I had not expected so soon. An all but certain test of the midpoint resistance at p=32.150 seemed assured when the futures ended the week an inch off the intraday high.  The pattern looks too obvious to yield a very tightly stopped short, but price action at the midpoint Hidden Pivot cannot but give us a firm handle on trend strength. If the Auggies pop through the resistance and close above it for two consecutive weeks, they'll be well on their way to delivering D=35.40 before summer ends.

The failure a week ago to reach the 5606.50 rally target is not a sign of good health. Although the futures could get second wind and blow past this Hidden Pivot resistance in the days ahead, they should at least have reached it on the first try. It would have required only a very small additional push to get to the 'finish line', and there is no rationalizing bulls' laziness.  Look for churn and a possible top from a level somewhat above the 5588.00 high recorded on June 20, or even above the 5606.50 target.

Microsoft apexed last week just 71 cents (0.1%) below a long-term target at 456.88 I'd billboarded here. It happened on Thursday, but on Friday the stock plunged to 446.41, most of it coming in the final 30 minutes of the session. This put the previous day's record high in sharper relief, increasing its potential importance. It also wiped out the entire week's gains, presumably creating a layer of urgent supply of a kind that this stock's handlers are not accustomed to coping with. Expect more backing and filling in the week ahead and a test of lows at 441.27 and 436.72 recorded on the way up during the last two weeks. _______ UPDATE (Jul 2): There was no backing and filling whatsoever. Instead, MSFT turned Friday's criminally rigged plunge into a v-shaped swoon powered by short-covering. The 456.88 target 'should' still contain bulls, albeit imprecisely, given the obviousness of the pattern. If it doesn't, don't count on 462.80, the 'D' target associated with the sucky marquee 'A' at 213.43, to do the job precisely either.  An 'extension' target derived solely from the C-D  leg lies at D=509.40, where A=309.45 on 9/29/23. p2=479.06 for that pattern, and don't think it would be impossibly cute for the final top to occur at 494.23, midway between p2 and D. That is a price point so nicely ensconced in our discomfort zone that no one on earth could be watching it.

Last week's thumb-wrestling match ended in a draw as bears failed to push the Auggies down to the 2281.00 target shown. The best they could muster was to diddle the secondary Hidden Pivot support at 2306.40 for nearly two days. The week ended with the futures mildly on the upswing, although a further push to the green line (x=2357.20) would trigger a 'mechanical' short. The opportunity looks second-rate, so I'll recommend watching from the sidelines. A bigger picture shows a nearly three-month consolidation with potential to 2520 or higher. Somewhat lower prices remain likely for now, though.

Sep Silver's slight dip last week beneath the 29.05  'd' target of the reverse pattern shown is sufficient for us to infer that the futures are likely to grind lower before they are fully corrected for another big leg up. It should launch within the next 2-3 weeks and reach 36. Please note, however, that an intervening pullback to p=26.67 (monthly continuous chart, A=11.64 on 3/31/20) would set up the juiciest 'mechanical' buying opportunity we've seen in a while.

The easy move through p=79.55 in mid-June strongly suggests the August contract is bound for at least D=86.66. We can hope nonetheless that p2=83.11, the secondary Hidden Pivot, slows crude's ascent; otherwise, pump prices, along with the price of nearly everything else, will receive a turboboost before summer is over. If there's a silver lining, the pattern is compelling enough to imply there's no great likelihood of a further push into the 90s.

Friday's power dive was more than a minor setback, especially since it occurred before TLT was able to test March 28's key 'external' peak at 95.02.  The kamikaze dive was the equivalent of Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow, meaning it portends yet more weeks of winter before bulls could conceivably recover the gumption to try again. That's assuming they do, but the outlook would worsen if last week's two-gap downtrend continues more or less unabated until it exceeds 90.65, an 'external' low recorded on June 10 that begs to be tested.

Although this week's commentary discusses why the dollar's weekly chart looks interesting, the daily chart shown is equally interesting in another way. DXY spent most of the week stalled precisely at the 106.07 midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance of a bullish pattern that projects to as high as 108.15.  The way in which buyers handle this obstacle cannot but accurately predict the dollar's course over the next several weeks. In any event, and however unlikely, a swoon to the green line (x=105.03) would trigger an enticing 'mechanical' buy.