Crypto doesn’t have a place in every client’s portfolio, but most of clients will at least know something about the space. Bitcoin specifically doesn’t earn featured articles in the daily equity report quite often (for those of you that are interested, check out our weekly cryptocurrency review video linked here) but every once in a while price action does dictate a larger review of the space as a whole. Most recently, crypto has journeyed higher alongside other risk on assets to close July/open August, with Bitcoin breaking to new all-time chart highs as it brushed up against $125,000 for the first time ever on 8/14. While price action has cooled off over the last few days, $BTC is up just over 25% this year and the technical picture for the space remains largely constructive. Diving deeper into the technical picture for representative IBIT below, the fund maintains a strong 5.83 fund score. While some near-term resistance looks to be present around $69, the middle of the trading band at $64 also offers some localized support above levels bulls ran out of steam at previously in 2025.

Bitcoin hasn’t been the only currency to advance quite notably so far this year. In fact, $BTC reversed back down into O’s on its 3.25% relative strength chart against the Nasdaq Crypto Index (.NCI), suggesting that it has shown some near-term weakness against other members of the crypto space. While the “crypto-king” Bitcoin maintains a pair of buy signals on this chart, the upside action from other members, particularly Ethereum ($ETH) is certainly notable. $ETH is testing all-time highs on its default chart dating back to 2021, and while it is extended around current levels bulls should look towards the $4,000 mark as a potential point of support on pullbacks.

While it might not be suitable for every client to pick up pure crypto exposure within their portfolio, there are a handful of crypto-adjacent firms that are technically acceptable by NDW standards. COIN is technically a 3/5 attribute name, and it poses an interesting technical picture at the time of this writing. A $5 chart below reveals that the name is still trading in a positive trend and is above what looks to be quite a relevant support level around $295. On the other hand, it now trades well off 2025 highs and recent action leaves plenty of resistance baked in just above current levels. Keep this in mind with exposure… while it remains technically actionable by NDW standards recent action does warrant a watchful eye.  

International equities have been quietly keeping pace with US equities over the past four months. We have seen 90 trading days since the bottom of the “Liberation Day” induced decline for global equities occurred on April 8. Since that day, the S&P 500 Index SPX has returned an impressive 29%. On the other hand, international equities, as represented by the broad ex-US ETF ACWX, have gained just over 27%. ACWX is also up over 20% year-to-date (through 8/15), while SPX is up less than 10%.

Even with strong performance, international equities feel like an afterthought for most investment managers. That is largely because we have not seen ACWX outpace SPX in consecutive years since 2007. Six months of strong performance is not enough to change the perception built around 15 years of underperformance. Sure, there have been some positive stretches for foreign stocks in those years, but none that resulted in meaningful, long-term shifts in relative strength.

International equities still sit in the second-ranked position in our DALI asset class rankings, trailing domestic equities by 18 signals (as of 8/15). We saw some shifting leadership among those two asset classes and commodities from April through June, but the domestic equities asset class has distanced itself from the others over the past six weeks. Looking back at the rankings on that Liberation Day low on April 8 tells a different story. Since that day, domestic equities have gained 31 relative strength (RS) signals. International equities have more than doubled that improvement by gaining 66 RS signals.

We do not know if the recent outperformance from international equities is paving the way for sustained leadership, or if it will be another brief run that gives way yet again to the dominance of US stocks. All we can do is follow the price movement, which suggests we give more attention to foreign equity markets.

There have been some notable shifts in strength underneath the hood of international equities since early April. The map comparison below helps show this shifting strength by highlighting the 41 countries included in our NDW Country Index Matrix ranking according to their matrix rank. Countries in the top 10 get a green “buy” classification, the next 11 countries get a yellow “hold” classification, and the countries in the bottom half get a red “sell” classification. We then took two snapshots of those rankings, one from the recent bottom on April 8, and the other from this past Friday, August 15. Some observations by region are included below, followed by the two maps.

Key Observations:

• Europe has shown the most consistent strength. Notable improvers include Greece, which rose into the top 10 in April and continued to ascend to the second-ranked position. Portugal has also shown strength, jumping more positions than any other country in the top half.
• South America is still somewhat of a mixed bag but has seen more improvement than weakness. Brazil remains in the bottom half of the rankings but has moved up a few places in recent months. Chile has gained momentum to advance into the middle of the rankings. Colombia has lost some strength but remains in the top ten alongside Peru.
• North America, as represented by Canada and Mexico, have experienced further weakness to each sit in the bottom half of the rankings. Mexico has been a laggard since late last summer. Canada has seen more recent weakness, now sitting 21^st out of the 41 countries.
• Asian countries have seen further relative weakness throughout the past few months. China fell from near the top of the rankings to the 15^th position. While it is still in the top half, the relative price improvement has been much more muted for this major global player. A rebound from China would not only provide positive tailwinds for other Asian countries, but also for the broader international equity space due to its large weighting in major funds.

Daily Option Ideas for August 18, 2025