In this post, I’ll focus on setups that I’m monitoring for both long and short positions. With a chart and short write-up, this is a quick way to scan and plan potential trades.
These ideas are the end result of my process to identify stocks offering the right combination of growth fundamentals along with a proper chart setup. Live alerts are sent to Traders Hub members only.
Stock Market Update
Major market indexes continue making new record highs on strong corporate earnings and forward revisions along with optimism that the war in the Middle East is nearing its end. The first quarter earnings surprise for the median stock in the S&P 500 is coming in at 6%, which is the best level in four years. While strong earnings from AI hyperscalers and data center capex fueling semiconductor stocks are a big driver, earnings revisions are broadening out to other capitalization ranges as well. You can see in the chart below that earnings revisions breadth is expanding in small-cap companies along with large-caps in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.
While hope that the war in the Middle East in nearing an end, the impact on energy markets could linger while production is brought back online and the oil product supply chain normalizes. One estimate suggests that it will take two years for oil production to fully recover to pre-war levels. It’s also safe to assume that the geopolitical risk premium added to oil prices will remain much higher in the months ahead. The inflationary impact of high energy prices is altering the outlook for monetary policy at a time when central banks around the world have been slowly shifting to a tightening bias. The chart below plots the percentage of central banks whose last move was a rate cut (blue line) versus a rate hike (red line). Since mid-2025, the portion of banks hiking is slowly moving higher and could quicken given the inflation outlook.
The positive earnings momentum is the main catalyst driving stock prices at the moment. But it will be important to monitor the central bank narrative, and if investors start to perceive inflation as the bigger risk. For now, the market backdrop is constructive for trading breakouts with more chart setups developing. Keep reading to see:
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Chart analysis for new trade ideas.
