Two major market outperformers could be due for a pullback from CNBC.
December’s destruction is already fading from view.
Since last month’s lows, the average S&P 500 stock has bounced 15 percent with some high flyers such as Chipotle, Citigroup, Twitter and Netflix pulling off a much steeper rebound.
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A pullback could be ahead for one of those names, says Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray.
“You can see the huge move here in Citigroup, you’re now getting somewhat overbought and from our perspective, maybe this rally has a little bit further to go but you’re running into the 200-day moving average, around $65, and after that you’ve got some resistance around $75,” Johnson said Friday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation. ”
Citigroup’s relative strength index has peaked at 74 during this month-long rebound, its most overbought level since the beginning of 2018. Any reading above 70 on the RSI typically suggests overbought conditions.
There is one macro factor that would make Johnson change his tune on Citigroup, though.
“I want to see an improvement in 10-year bond yields to give me the confidence and conviction that this is a longer-term trade and not just a quick advance at this point in time,” he said.
Higher bond yields generally boost bank profitability. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to price, has been below 2.8 percent for a month.
Netflix could also be set to pullback after an extreme run-up in the past month, says Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global. She says lofty expectations over its growth trajectory could be its downfall.
“If you look at the outlook for Netflix, they’re having to raise prices in order to boost their revenue numbers because they had a revenue miss, so that tells you that their chance of really moving the needle in the U.S. is pretty done at this point,” Sanchez said Friday on “Trading Nation.”
Netflix’s paid memberships in the U.S. in its fourth quarter rose by 11 percent. The company has forecast 60.1 million paid members in its first quarter, up 9 percent from a year earlier.
