The S&P 500 hit a record high today on the back of a 10% pop in Google.
Blake Young looked at the tape and spotted something nobody is talking about.
The accumulation behind this rally is three standard deviations outside normal, but it is happening on lighter and lighter volume. Even today’s breakout barely cleared 50% of average volume.
Blake calls the post earnings response “very suspect.”
Instead of chasing tech higher, he is rotating into defensives that are quietly bottoming out. Consumer staples bounced today on real volume, and utilities outperformed alongside them.
Money is moving toward safety.
Blake walked through specific entries in tonight’s video:
- Pepsi (PEP) bounced on higher than normal volume with a target near $163 for a 5% to 7% move. Blake likes buying the 150 call for roughly $11 instead of putting $158 on the line for the stock. The 80 delta acts almost exactly like shares, plus the next dividend hits in June at a 3.59% yield.
- Kroger (KR) is bouncing off support with Blake targeting a return to $73 inside 30 days. That is another 7% to 8% move on top of a 2% dividend. The 66 strike call runs about $3.10, roughly 5% of the stock price for nearly identical exposure.
- XLP needs to close above $84.35 to confirm a longer term bullish setup back to $88 or $89. Today’s breakout puts higher highs and higher lows in place on the shorter timeframe.
- Consumer staples carry a 0.47 beta versus the broad market. That gives Blake a way to stay long without chasing AI names that have already extended.
He also flagged Philip Morris and Procter & Gamble as part of the same defensive theme.
