Summary
Corporate insiders clearly did not have advanced knowledge of the U.S./Israel military action against Iran. But the year-to-date data on insider sentiment from Vickers Stock Research had been telling us for months that insiders felt that equity prices were rich and therefore vulnerable. While we acknowledge that trying to gauge changes in insider sentiment is trivial when a war is impacting millions of lives, we note that the longer-term valuation opinion from insiders has turned somewhat as share prices have pulled back. Last week, four of the 11 market sectors earned a bearish one-week sell/buy ratio from Vickers. This week, only one (Communication Services) is bearish. Last week, four sectors earned a bullish one-week sell/buy ratio from Vickers. This week, seven are bullish (Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financial, Healthcare, Industrials, Real Estate, and Utilities). Turning to indices, on a scale where a reading of 2.00 or lower is bullish, Vickers’ NYSE One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is now 2.53, improved from 4.43 last week. The same ratio for the Nasdaq is now 3.24 versus 3.98 last week. And Vickers’ Total one-week ratio (all exchange) is now 2.90, improved from 4.11 last week. From a longer-term sector perspective, three sectors now have a bearish eight-week sell/buy ratio: Communication Services, Energy, and Utilities. That is down from six last week, with the Indu
