Phillips 66 is an independent refiner that owns or holds interest in 10 refineries with a total crude throughput capacity of 2.0 million barrels per day, or mmb/d, at the end of 2025. The midstream segment comprises extensive transportation and NGL processing assets. It includes 70,000 miles of crude oil, refined petroleum product, NGL and natural gas pipeline systems, and a comprehensive set of refined petroleum product, NGL and crude oil terminals, gathering and processing plants and fractionation facilities and various other storage and loading facilities. Its CPChem chemical joint venture operates facilities primarily in the United States and the Middle East and produces olefins and polyolefins.

Phillips 66 is an independent refiner that owns or holds interest in 10 refineries with a total crude throughput capacity of 2.0 million barrels per day, or mmb/d, at the end of 2025. The midstream segment comprises extensive transportation and NGL processing assets. It includes 70,000 miles of crude oil, refined petroleum product, NGL and natural gas pipeline systems, and a comprehensive set of refined petroleum product, NGL and crude oil terminals, gathering and processing plants and fractionation facilities and various other storage and loading facilities. Its CPChem chemical joint venture operates facilities primarily in the United States and the Middle East and produces olefins and polyolefins.

While the technicals remain iffy for the stock market, we are seeing fear and breadth washouts. The equity-only put/call ratio spiked to 0.80 on March 11, hit 0.86 on March 17, and 0.90 on March 18. The five-day equity-only has spiked to 0.76, higher than during the tariff selloff and the highest since August and September 2024. Both those periods were during pullbacks. During periods of market stress, the five-day can spike to between 0.85 and 0.95 and can reach 1.0+ (but that is rare). While high put/call ratios show fear in the options market, and are bullish in the future, the read is not bullish when P/C trends are rising. When the 21-day P/C is in an uptrend, it is bearish for stocks. When option players pivot the other way, the worst of the market decline likely is over. The 21-day bottomed on January 29, right as the S&P 500 was peaking, and has been heading north ever since. While this might not be intuitive, it makes sense: it takes an increase in bullishness to stop the market's decline and to reverse prices. The McClellan Oscillator for the S&P 500 declined to an extreme oversold condition of -95 last week, the most-oversold result since December 2024 and April 2024 -- and more oversold than in April 2025 during the tariff tantrum. The NYSE McClellan Oscillator dropped to -88, the lowest point since April 2025. The oscillator measures breadth using the difference between the 19-day and 39-day exponential moving averages of net advances. On March 18, NYSE advances/issues and up volume/volume both fell to 20%, the weakest result since November 2025. We excluded data from the last day of 2025. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Risk-on was back, at least for one day, as the major indices rose between 0.8% and 1.5% on Wednesday. Stocks were led by Information Technology, with the XLK rising 1.8%, and also were helped by a 1.7% bounce in Consumer Discretionary (XLY). The main impetus for the strength was that the oil market calmed after two volatile days. Both WTI and Brent finished slightly higher, as possible easing Middle East tensions and hope for Persian Gulf shipping protection led to a less-active oil market. Meanwhile, let's not forget that we get the February employment report on Friday morning. The volatility index (VIX), which hit an intraday high of 28 on Tuesday, dropped back to 21 by the close on Wednesday. More importantly, the VIX has completed two of the three steps needed for a buy signal, as Tuesday's close above the upper Bollinger Band was reversed and the VIX is now below the upper band. A lower VIX on Thursday would complete the three-step process. These buy signals generally lead only to a bounce unless they occur after a decent pullback in the S&P 500, which we have not seen. The XLK was led by semiconductors and software, with mega-cap titans NVDA, TSM, AVGO, and MSFT providing the heavy lifting and TSLA driving the XLY. Bitcoin (BTC) spiked more than 7% and it's possible that the crypto market is finally bottoming. But it is still early. BTC broke out of its one-month range. In the past eight days, it has seen three days of above-average volume during advancing sessions. Going back to the peak five months ago, distribution has been very clear -- so maybe this is a change in character. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)