Leaderless

In 1532, the Inca Empire ruled over almost the entire Western half of the South American continent, from Southern Colombia through Peru to the southern tip of modern-day Chile.  It had between 6 and 9 million inhabitants.  Upon his arrival at Cajamarca, Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca leader, Atahualpa, rather than fight an army of thousands.

With the leader taken out, Pizarro was able to conquer the entire Inca Empire with just 169 soldiers.

Like the once-mighty Incas, we have lost our market leaders this spring one by one.  In like fashion, we’ve seen the indexes fall into a listless submission as the stocks we once looked to for higher highs can no longer rally their brethren…

Apple is some $30 off its high (10%) for the first time in, well, I can hardly remember.  The usual concerns about Steve Jobs’ health have been compounded with the sense that Google‘s Android is going to give iPhone a serious run for its money.

Speaking of Google, the company is now in the throes of a mid-life crisis way earlier than anyone expected…and it’s ugly to watch.  While the company continues kicking ass in search and ads, the unstoppableness and swagger are gone, too much inertia for too long.

We’ve lost the silver miners too, even as the price of the metal itself continues to climb.  Psychologically speaking, this is a tough loss for the bulls – the silver names were the real firepower in the commodity-related equity patch.  First we got the surprise resignation of Silver Wheaton‘s CEO then we got news out of Bolivia that the government was going to start nationalizing mines to appease the envious unions.  Silver names Coeur D’Alene and Pan American Silver were slammed even as they had just broken out after months of grinding toward their ’08 highs.

Brazil and China are now quietly beginning their own inflation battles.  The related ADRs are nowhere in terms of year-to-date performance.  Monetary and fiscal tightening in the BRIC countries has taken an entire swathe of leadership names out of the race.

The Cloud Computing sector has gone from momentum nirvana to mass grave in less than two months.  The hottest of the hot have succumbed to diminished expectations since the Akamai shock in mid-February.  F5 Networks, Riverbed and other Cloud leaders have now undergone substantial corrections.  Inspiration for the other techs will not soon come from this group in its current condition.

Finally, as tensions appear to be subsiding in the Middle East, we lose the most important leadership group of all: Energy and Oil Services, the best performers of 2011 so far.  The XLE has undergone a quick-n-dirty retracement this week along with the entire nat gas, solar, oil sands and coal complex.  As always, the gains are erased much more quickly than they were created as crude pulls back from 111 to the low 100’s.  Even stalwart commodity lover Goldman Sachs is getting off the horse.  They’ve put out a series of negative notes on the hard assets trade this week with the warning that commodities will underperform for the next 3 to 6 months.

The bears have been tearing down the leaders of this tape in a systematic and unmerciful fashion for the last few weeks.  Even Netflix, OpenTable and Ford could see their influence wane should the assassinations continue.  In the absence of new leadership or a resumption of fortitude in the Apples and Oils, it’s tough to expect much progress going forward for the broader market.

This content, which contains security-related opinions and/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment.

The commentary in this “post” (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Ritholtz Wealth Management employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Ritholtz Wealth Management or performance returns of any Ritholtz Wealth Management Investments client.

References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.

Wealthcast Media, an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, receives payment from various entities for advertisements in affiliated podcasts, blogs and emails. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. For additional advertisement disclaimers see here: https://www.ritholtzwealth.com/advertising-disclaimers

Please see disclosures here.

What's been said:

Discussions found on the web
  1. barcode kaufen commented on May 20

    barcode kaufen

    […]just beneath, are numerous absolutely not connected websites to ours, nonetheless, they may be certainly really worth going over[…]

  2. buy email list commented on May 20

    buy email list

    […]that could be the end of this report. Right here you’ll locate some web-sites that we feel you’ll value, just click the hyperlinks over[…]

  3. Internet Marketing commented on May 21

    Internet Marketing

    […]just beneath, are a lot of entirely not associated websites to ours, nonetheless, they are certainly worth going over[…]

  4. global education for all commented on May 21

    global education for all

    […]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine some unrelated data, nevertheless truly really worth taking a appear, whoa did a single learn about Mid East has got extra problerms also […]

  5. back to school laptop commented on May 21

    back to school laptop

    […]Every after in a even though we choose blogs that we study. Listed beneath would be the newest internet sites that we pick […]

  6. business school vcu commented on May 21

    business school vcu

    […]please visit the internet sites we stick to, which includes this a single, because it represents our picks in the web[…]

  7. w curve study abroad commented on May 23

    w curve study abroad

    […]very couple of sites that take place to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly nicely really worth checking out[…]

  8. girnede satılık ev fiyatları commented on May 24

    girnede satılık ev fiyatları

    […]we prefer to honor quite a few other world-wide-web internet sites around the internet, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[…]

  9. DIY wall bed commented on May 24

    DIY wall bed

    […]although websites we backlink to beneath are considerably not connected to ours, we really feel they may be essentially really worth a go by means of, so possess a look[…]

  10. Ruqyah commented on May 24

    Ruqyah

    […]just beneath, are several entirely not associated web-sites to ours, however, they may be certainly worth going over[…]

  11. old postcards commented on May 24

    old postcards

    […]here are some hyperlinks to web-sites that we link to because we believe they may be worth visiting[…]

  12. chinese antiquities commented on May 25

    chinese antiquities

    […]please take a look at the internet sites we adhere to, including this one, as it represents our picks through the web[…]

  13. lucid dream vibrator commented on May 25

    lucid dream vibrator

    […]always a major fan of linking to bloggers that I like but do not get quite a bit of link like from[…]

  14. 6 6 s home improvements commented on May 25

    6 6 s home improvements

    […]Every as soon as inside a whilst we pick out blogs that we study. Listed beneath would be the most up-to-date web sites that we pick out […]

  15. learning 1 2 3 commented on May 25

    learning 1 2 3

    […]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a handful of unrelated information, nevertheless actually worth taking a search, whoa did one understand about Mid East has got extra problerms also […]