Last week was tough for stocks -- and we now enter the biggest weeks of the second-quarter earnings season, with plenty of major earnings report for the market to digest. On the economic front, it will be relatively quiet -- but we do get updates on GDP on Thursday and on PCE on Friday. The major indices have worked off extreme overbought conditions on the daily charts, and quickly. But the daily uptrends in the 14-day relative strength index and the daily moving-average convergence/divergence have been broken. In addition, weekly momentum is still elevated and we did see a bearish divergence at the weekly closing high on July 12 versus the closing high from late March. The S&P 500 broke its 21-day exponential for the first time since early April, but its uptrend off the lows since early May remains intact. The 21-day rate of change is close to going bearish, as is the daily vortex indicator. Minor trendline support next week is at 5,480, the rising 50-day is at 5,420 (extending into next week), and chart support lies between 5,225 and 5,310. These levels also are associated with 50% and 61.8% retracements of the rally since mid-April. The more worrisome condition exists with the high-beta indices like the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ). It has broken an uptrend off the lows since early May, the 21-day rate of change is in negative territory, there have been multiple days of distributive action, the 5/13 exponential crossover is bearish, and price is sitting on the prior low from June 24 near $474. In addition, the biggest QQQ issues either are close to breaking or have already broken below their 50-day averages. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

BlackRock provides investment management, risk management, and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. Its range of products includes separate accounts, mutual funds, the iShares franchise of ETFs, and other pooled investment vehicles. Assets under management were $10.6 trillion as of June 30, 2024. iShares is a global leader in ETFs, with funds in multiple asset classes and $3.7 trillion in ETF assets under management as of Jun 30, 2023. In May 2020, PNC Financial Services Group, which held about 22% of BlackRock common shares, sold its stake through a registered offering.

Stocks continue to print all-time highs and insiders continue to take advantage of record prices to cash in a bit. Bu that fits historical norms, as the current pace of selling (as expressed by the eight-week sell/buy ratios from Vickers Stock Research) has been seen before when stocks have pushed higher and higher and higher. Consider as well that earnings season is now in full swing and corporate executives, directors, and beneficial owners did not cash out to any significant degree in advance, and it is not hard to describe current insider sentiment as being 'of no concern.' That feeds the narrative that stock prices may well move higher over the balance of 2024. On a sector basis, selling by insiders last week was greatest in Information Technology, with shares valued at $448 million sold versus $23 million bought, and followed by Healthcare with $288 million sold. In Consumer Discretionary, selling outpaced buying by a factor of just 1.8-times, with roughly $11.8 million of shares sold versus $6.5 million of shares bought. Buying outpaced selling in Communication Services, Real Estate, and Materials. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at NVIDIA Corp. (NGS: NVDA) and Appian Corp. (NGM: APPN).

BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, with $10.473 trillion in assets under management at the end of March 2024. Its product mix is fairly diverse, with 54% of managed assets in equity strategies, 27% in fixed income, 9% in multi-asset classes, 7% in money market funds, and 3% in alternatives. Passive strategies account for around two thirds of long-term AUM, with the company's ETF platform maintaining a leading market share domestically and on a global basis. Product distribution is weighted more toward institutional clients, which by our calculations account for around 80% of AUM. BlackRock is geographically diverse, with clients in more than 100 countries and more than one third of managed assets coming from investors domiciled outside the US and Canada.