John Murphy’s Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Corporate Relationships (the updated successor to his 1991 classic) remains the definitive roadmap for cross-asset behavior. While the tools have digitized, the "plumbing" of the financial markets he described remains largely intact.

Below is an executive summary of the core tenets, followed by a critical assessment of its 2026 utility.

Executive Summary: Intermarket Technical Analysis

1. The Intermarket Philosophy

• Non-Isolation: No market moves in a vacuum. A technician studying the S&P 500 without looking at the 10-year Treasury yield is seeing only half the picture.
• The Four Pillars: Global finance is a closed loop consisting of Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, and Currencies. Capital does not disappear; it merely rotates between these four buckets.
• Discounting Mechanism: Markets are forward-looking. Technical analysis on one asset (like Copper) often provides a "lead time" for another (like Building Stocks).

2. The Definitive Relationships (The "Murphy Rules")

Murphy established several inverse and positive correlations that dictate the flow of money:

• The Inverse Dollar/Commodity Rule: Since most commodities are priced in USD, a rising Dollar acts as a "tax" on commodities, driving their prices down.
• The Inverse Commodity/Bond Rule: Rising commodity prices signal inflation. Inflation erodes the fixed payments of bonds, causing bond prices to fall and yields to rise.
• The Positive Bond/Stock Rule (Inflation-Dependent): In a "normal" low-inflation environment, rising bond prices (falling yields) are bullish for stocks as they lower borrowing costs and increase the present value of future earnings.
• The Inverse Interest Rate/Stock Rule: When the "cost of money" (yields) rises too fast, it eventually chokes off equity bull markets.

3. The Business Cycle and Asset Rotation

Murphy popularized the visual "sine wave" of the economy to show where money hides during different phases:

• Stage 1 (Recession): Bonds turn up first as the economy cools and the Fed cuts rates.
• Stage 2 (Bottoming): Stocks turn up as they anticipate the end of the recession.
• Stage 3 (Early Recovery): Commodities turn up as industrial demand returns.
• Stage 4 (Full Expansion): Bonds turn down as inflation fears emerge.