Earnings season is officially behind us. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have an opportunity or two to rear its head on a weekly basis. This week Micron (MU) and Lululemon (LULU) present potential opportunities. The options are highly liquid in both underlying stocks and the IV rank for both sits above 40. Moreover, we have the ability to create a nice, wide range around the expected moves.

We added two new positions last week, an iron condor in IWM and a bear call spread in DIA. As a result, we have three open positions, all of which are currently in profitable territory. My hope is that we can add a bull put spread to the mix this week to balance out our deltas as they are currently leaning slightly bearish. And while I’m not opposed to some bearish-leaning deltas, I would still like to bring in more premium in May and, at the moment, a bull put spread makes the most sense.

Three out of our five positions in the Income Wheel Portfolio are due to expire this week. Two out of the three positions (GDX, KO) should reap nice profits while the third position, Wells Fargo (WFC), will most likely see a loss for this expiration cycle. However, due to our strategy, we’ve built a nice 17.09% cushion to absorb any hiccups along the way, and given the near-term woes in the banking sector, I would consider the recent decline in WFC a “hiccup.” So much so, that there is a good chance we add another bank stock to the mix this week for a short-term trade.

Despite ongoing banking fears, impressively the S&P 500 gained 1.26% last week, while the Dow rose by 1.48% and the Nasdaq added 1.14%. How this situation will play out this week is a complete toss-up, though I have to say I’ve been impressed by the resiliency of the bulls in the face of bad news … for now!

Despite ongoing banking fears, impressively the S&P 500 gained 1.26% last week, while the Dow rose by 1.48% and the Nasdaq added 1.14%. How this situation will play out this week is a complete toss-up, though I have to say I’ve been impressed by the resiliency of the bulls in the face of bad news … for now!

The market has a split tape right now -- on one hand, the broad market is very weak, led lower by the horrid financial sector, but on the other hand, many growth indexes and individual stocks are hanging in there ... with some actually stretching higher. We’re certainly not going to ignore our market timing indicators (Cabot Tides and Two-Second Indicator are negative), but it’s hard to ignore the action in growth, either, especially after last year’s bear and lots of bottoming action. Thus, tonight, we’re adding two half-sized stakes in potential new leaders, but also holding a bit more than half the portfolio in cash.

Elsewhere in the issue, we write about the action of interest rates (likely longer-term positive) and the resilience of growth stocks, along with a full watch list and some new enticing ideas. All in all, we remain flexible, but are still mostly cautious given the evidence.

I think the 0.25% raise by the Fed yesterday will be followed by a pause. Won’t it be nice when stocks fluctuate primarily around company performance rather than actions by the Fed? Elsewhere, Xi and Putin meet in Moscow in a sign of solidarity and challenge to the U.S. and the West. Novo Nordisk (NVO) is up 10 points this week while today we have a new emerging market recommendation from a country with one of the strongest currencies of 2023.

Now that was an interesting week, as countless sectors imploded (banks/REITs/airlines/energy) while at the same time money rushed into mega-cap technology. By week’s end the S&P 500 had risen 1.43%, the Dow had fallen 0.15%, and the Nasdaq way outperformed, having gained 4.41%.

The market remains mostly weak and very news-driven, and because we’re not ones to catch falling knives, we continue to advise a cautious stance. The one meaningful ray of light we’re seeing is the resilience of big-cap indexes in general and many growth stocks in particular, including a bunch of recent Top Ten names—lots of growth titles are holding up in fine fashion, which isn’t normally something you see at the front-end of a sustained decline. That’s encouraging, though it doesn’t outweigh the other factors mentioned: All in all, we’ll keep our Market Monitor at a level 5, holding a good chunk of cash while we look for signs the buyers are stepping up.

As you’d expect, this week’s list is heavy on the growth side of the equation, though it also has some interest-rate sensitive names as well. Our Top Pick is a well-situated cybersecurity play that’s trading tightly despite the market’s shenanigans.

Banking crisis fears have subsided, and while the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate and Signature Bank simultaneously going under is sure to be felt in the market for weeks and months to come, it’s also not looking like 2008 out there, at least not at the moment. Still, we could use some more safety in the portfolio, and today we add it in the form of a large-cap healthcare giant that’s a reliable dividend payer, boasts one of the industry’s best drug pipelines, and has been outperforming the market for years. It’s a favorite of Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson, who recently upgraded the stock to Buy.

We closed out our DIA bear call spread last week for a 15.74% profit. Another winning trade should put us close, if not above, our all-time highs in the portfolio. This week I intend to add one, if not two trades to the portfolio. My goal is to go out to the April 21, 2023 expiration cycle if possible, but with the April 21 expiration only 32 days away, I might have to go out a bit further in duration. Either way, expect to see several trade alerts as we progress through the week.

Even with some crazy volatility over the past few weeks, not much has changed. We continue to be loaded up in the Income Wheel Portfolio, although I wouldn’t mind stepping into a few new positions. As I stated last week, if I do decide to add a position or two to the portfolio, one will have a low IV and the other will be the exact opposite, with a high IV. The reason, as stated in the past, is that I like to diversify the overall beta of my positions so that our overall level of risk is balanced.

After a good day yesterday, stocks have resumed the decline.

The Russia/Ukraine thing abated yesterday, and the market was thrilled. The thrill is already gone, and investors are back to worrying about inflation and a tightening Fed.

More color on our recent sale that generated a 40% gain since September and comments on other recommended stocks.

Earnings have been terrific again. Rising corporate profits have so far kept stocks out of correction territory. But earnings season is ending. And problems are growing.

I try not to spend too much time doing macro analysis, but one thing I’ve spent some time thinking about is the coming shift in consumer spending from goods to services.

In today’s ETF Strategist update, I’ll answer two questions that came in this week. Here is a summary, and I go into further detail in the short podcast that accompanies this update.

The last few months have been a tale of two markets for the metals. Base metals like copper, tin and aluminum have outperformed, while steel and precious metals like gold, silver and platinum have underperformed.

We comment on earnings from several recommended companies. Also, we raise our price targets for three stocks that have moved above our existing price targets. And, rooting for the turnaround Cincinnati Bengals.

The S&P 600 SmallCap index continues to firm up and even make some progress moving off support near the 102 level (the IJR ETF is at 107 now).

Explorer stocks were all up this past week with the exception of Ford (F) as inflation numbers out this morning are expected to show consumer-price inflation picked up again in January, to an annual pace of 7.2%.

After a rough start to the year, the market has stabilized and recovered somewhat.

Earnings are terrific again. About 80% of S&P 500 companies have reported, with average earnings growth of around 23%. Earnings have saved and revitalized the market throughout the pandemic recovery. And this is another stellar quarter for corporate profits.

Greentech is still bearish, but a 12% rebound from the lows of last week gives us the feeling that things are stabilizing. Our sector is being helped by very good earnings results in solar and renewable-energy related semiconductors, which clearly are easing various investor fears.

Earnings reports from two recommended companies were mildly encouraging. There was very little news on other recommended companies. We note our recent Sell recommendation that produced a 41% return since our September 2021 Buy recommendation. We also comment on an emerging macro concept useful for value investors.

Analysts expect this off-price retailer to grow by triple-digits over the next five years.

As we alluded to in this week’s report, the major industrial metals are improving with copper showing the greatest relative strength. We have added some new positions to the portfolio in light of this strength, and here we’ll highlight the latest ones.

Our first idea is a software company who beat EPS estimates by $0.12 in the last quarter. Our sale recommendation is a company whose earnings forecasts are dimming.

The good news is that the marijuana industry is growing rapidly, with the leading companies continuing with their programs of store openings and acquisitions.

The top five holdings of this fund are: Microsoft Corp (MSFT, 11.29% of assets); Tesla Inc (TSLA, 8.41%), Danaher Corp (DHR, 6.09%); Honeywell International Inc (HON, 5.60%); and Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO, 5.29%).

This biopharma has a promising Alzheimer’s drug in the pipeline. But please note that these shares are speculative, so please don’t overload your portfolio with them.

We jumped into Bellring Brands (BRBR) as a trade in September and the stock has slid since. It’s down less than 10%, but the trajectory is clearly not working in our favor and I’m not going to let a trade attempt turn into something significant.

The broad industrial and precious metals market remains subject to the wild oscillations of daily news headlines. There are, however, some glimmers of life in beleaguered metals like copper and platinum.

Today is something of a battleground day for Accolade (ACCD) given that the stock slid into yesterday’s earnings call near the low end of its 2020 trading range amidst concerns that the Delta variant would challenge the critical selling season, which is underway right now.

This oil company is forecast to grow at a rate of 16.8% next year. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 3.02%, paid quarterly.

The FDA just approved our first pick, a mega-pharma company’s new migraine drug, Still trading at a discount, the shares have a current annual dividend yield of 4.75%, paid quarterly. Our second recommendation is taking some profits off the table, due to declining technical support.

This insurance company offers products in both the U.S. and Canada. The company beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates by $0.84 las quarter. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 1.99%, paid quarterly.

Our Cabot Top Ten Trader’s market timing system consists of two parts—one based on the action of three select, growth-oriented market indexes, and the other based on the action of the fast-moving stocks Cabot Top Ten features.