Friday, March 29, 2024
Hometrading nationThe Jan Brady trade: Midcap stocks surge

The Jan Brady trade: Midcap stocks surge

Being smack in the middle can be hard. And maybe when it comes to stocks in the middle, the S&P 400 midcap index doesn't get as much attention as its large- and small-cap counterparts, the and the Russell 2000.

But on Tuesday, the midcap index hit an all-time high, having already seen a 13 percent rise this year, and could see further upside due to several fundamental and technical forces.

"This is a great sector; it's the overlooked middle child," Eddy Elfenbein, editor of the Crossing Wall Street blog, said Tuesday on "Trading Nation." He said that recent uber-low market volatility has encouraged investors to venture into "riskier sectors of the market."

This, in Elfenbein's eyes, has driven investors into high-yield bonds and, now, midcaps.

"That's why they've been doing well, and if you see the Russell and the small-cap indexes are still a long way from record-high territory. So right now I think the midcap is really at the sweet spot of the risk movement," Elfenbein said.

S&P Global defines midcap stocks as generally being "quite dynamic and not so large that continued growth is unattainable," distinct from large- and small-cap companies. The index's median market cap, according to S&P data, is about $3.57 billion.

The midcap index has flourished year over year from a technical standpoint, with more room to run, according to Evercore ISI's head of technical analysis, Rich Ross.

Eve Plumb as Jan Brady, the middle daughter in "The Brady Brunch."CBS Photo Archive | Getty Images

Ross, pointing to a chart illustrating what he calls a "classic bullish setup" of the MDY, the ETF that tracks the midcap index, said a technical analysis shows the index has found substantial support over the last year.

"All of that tells me that we probably go higher," Ross said. But he has a caveat.

The real estate sector, one element Ross deemed integral in the index's growth, is a new classification. It comprises 11 percent of the index, as opposed to making up just over 3 percent of the S&P 500.

Ross points out the REIT real estate ETF is up substantially, "so you're really getting a nice kicker there from the added real estate component."

The sector that carries the most weight within the midcap index, at over 17 percent, is information technology.

And though he likes midcaps overall, Ross cautions to watch for what changes the Federal Reserve may bring this year.

"Obviously we want to watch interest rates. If interest rates start to [go] back up; that [real estate sector] can turn from your best friend to your worst enemy very quickly."

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