Even with Wednesday’s 1.7% drop, the Global X Lithium ETF (NYSEArca: LIT) has been a beacon of strength among rare earths metals ETFs this year.
Accounting for the Wednesday drop, LIT is still up more than 9% year-to-date and more than 10% in just the past month. Wednesday’s pullback could provide aggressive traders with an entry point to get long LIT before it makes another run higher.
“On the daily chart, we see the bull flag pattern that was created by an explosive price and volume move above the 50 and 200-day moving averages,” notes Deron Wagner of Morpheus Trading Group. LIT’s “hourly chart shows the tight price action of the past few days. If yesterday’s undercut of the 20-day EMA holds, then $LIT will have a higher low in place on the hourly chart. It is usually the sign of a very strong uptrend, when a stock or ETF rips higher and finds support at or around the 20-period EMA on its first pullback.
LIT’s compelling technicals are buoyed by a compelling fundamental backdrop. As was reported in late February, Elon Musk’s Tesla (NasdaqGS: TSLA) is planning to build a lithium-ion battery factory, dubbed the Gigafactory, costing $5 billion. The plant will help Tesla mass produce 500,000 or more electric vehicles per year, compared to 35,000 this year, according to Musk. [Tesla Factory Plans Boost Lithium ETF]
The $61.5 million LIT does not feature Tesla among its holdings, but the ETF provides exposure to the largest and most liquid companies that are active in exploration and/or mining of lithium or the production of lithium batteries.