Earnings season is officially behind us. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have an opportunity or two rear its head on a weekly basis. This week Nike (NKE) presents a potential opportunity. The options are highly liquid and the IV rank sits above 67. Moreover, we have the ability to create a 31-point range around the expected move of 21 points. We won’t know for certain if a trade will be placed until Tuesday, but all looks promising at the moment as long as the range (or something similar in width) and premium hold up into mid-day Tuesday.

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%.

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%.

In the March Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we take a look at what’s been unfolding in the financial system and consider implications for the FOMC’s meeting and subsequent rate hike decision next week.

Suffice to say, buying a bunch of stocks into the current uncertainty doesn’t seem like the best idea. We’ll add a few partial positions, but the bulk of this month’s new ideas are going on our Watch List.

We’ll take things as they come and consider plucking names off this list as things develop.

Never a dull moment!

Led by the meltdown in the financial sector, the market had an awful week. The numbers weren’t pretty as the S&P 500 fell 4.76%, the Dow lost 4.45%, and the Nasdaq declined 4.16%.

What was promising action two weeks ago got off to a bad start last week, but it was the late-week collapse in regional banks that caused the market to hit one giant air pocket. Clearly, at this point, the intermediate-term trend has turned down and the broad market is under a lot of pressure; we’re not in the business of catching falling knives, so we’re in the better-safe-than-sorry camp. That said, there are still many potential leaders in a variety of fields that are pulling back sharply, but normally—including some (like many from last weeks issue) that are hardly giving any ground at all. We’re moving our Market Monitor to a level 5—but also taking things on a stock-by-stock basis, which means giving some resilient names a chance.

This week’s list has a collection of mostly resilient names, with some steady actors but also a few true growth stories, too. Our Top Pick is a young upstart that’s higher risk, so keep positions small and look for weakness.

All Quiet on the Western Front is an ironically titled movie about war that won several awards at last night’s Oscars. It could loosely describe the last few days in the U.S. stock market too, as the collapse of three major banks (and counting?) has abruptly sent stocks tumbling back down into bear market territory and brought anxiety, uncertainty and volatility back to the forefront. So today, we’re selling our one bank stock, plus one other shaky growth stock, but making room for a cookie-cutter retail company that’s on solid ground. It’s a longtime favorite of Cabot Growth Investor Chief Analyst Mike Cintolo.

All is well in Quant Trader land. Our two positions are currently in great shape with the potential to take some decent profits off the table. We still have 39 days left until the April 21, 2023, expiration cycle, so there is a good chance that we take both of our open trades off the table for profits and look to immediately sell more premium, especially with the recent pop in implied volatility.

After the recent pullback, the All-Weather portfolio is now up 0.55%, with the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) doing the heavy lifting, up 7.19% since it was introduced to the portfolio back on 6/15/23. Besides DBC, we’ve rolled all of our positions to the April 21, 2023 expiration cycle. Our DBC 24 calls are due to expire this week. I will most likely allow them to carry through expiration and sell more calls after expiration, unless we have an opportunity to buy back our DBC 24 calls for $0.05 or less.

Earnings season is officially behind us. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have an opportunity or two rear its head on a weekly basis. This week FedEx (FDX) presents a potential opportunity. The options are highly liquid and the IV rank sits above 48. Moreover, we have the ability to create a 42.5-point range around the expected move of 27.5 points. We won’t know for certain if a trade will be placed until Thursday, but all looks promising at the moment.

Not much has changed from last week. We are loaded up in the Income Wheel Portfolio, although I wouldn’t mind stepping into a few new positions. 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.

Led by the meltdown in the financial sector, the market had an awful week. The numbers weren’t pretty as the S&P 500 fell 4.76%, the Dow lost 4.45%, and the Nasdaq declined 4.16%.

We comment on earnings from our recommended companies, a new buyback at a recommended company, trapdoor tech stocks, the possibility of a massive economy-wide inventory downcycle, and thoughts on energy stocks.

Stocks are deep in the red today following some high-profile earnings duds—as of 1 pm ET, the Dow is down 334 points, and the Nasdaq is off 387 points.

January was the worst month for the market since March of 2020. The S&P 500 was down 5.38% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 10% for the month. But stocks are recovering so far in the first week of February as earnings come to the rescue.

The first month of 2022 is in the books. And it wasn’t good. It was the worst month since March of 2020.

After a sharp pullback in January, the market has started to snap back this week. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised in the market tests new lows in February. Usually when the market is down in January, February weakness follows.

It was fun while it lasted, but it didn’t last long… That statement certainly describes gold’s recent flight-to-safety rally (and subsequent sell-off). But it could also be considered a worthy refrain for gold’s three prior lift-off attempts since last August, each of which proved to be a false breakout.

We update earnings from six recommended companies, summarize our ideas from the February Cabot Turnaround Letter, and provide comments on news from other recommended stocks. Also, check out this month’s Catalyst Report which lists important and potentially value-creating changes at undervalued companies.

Anybody that’s done a drive with kids has faced this question more times than they’d like to recall. We’re facing the same question now with respect to the market’s retreat as we look for some stability.

Stocks hopefully have settled down after facing a rough market in recent weeks fed by expectations that the Fed soon will embark on raising interest rates. This has led to sharp pullbacks for growth stocks with high valuations and no earnings. Quality and value are beating risk right now.

After a wild couple of weeks where technology stocks corrected, down 10% or more from the high, and the S&P 500 fell 10% on an intraday basis, investors nervously await the Fed this afternoon. The chairman will show us the way. He knows everything.

By some measures, Greentech looks more bearish than it has since March last year, with our benchmark Wilderhill Clean Energy Index breaking below support around 70-68.

The Fed is facing a fascinating dilemma. It needs to raise interest rates to address high inflation that seems to be persistent – especially as sharply higher housing prices (about 40% of the Consumer Price Index) work their way into the official inflation numbers. Yet, if the Fed raises rates too high or too fast, it risks a sharp decline in the stock market, a recession and higher financing costs for the federal government.

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.

Climbing demand and prices should put this flat-rolled steel producer on investors’ buy lists. Trading at a P/E of just 11.28, the shares appear to be very undervalued at this level.

We’re seeing the ugly action from last week continue today so we’ll take a few steps to protect some of our hard fought profits.

With the weakness in growth stocks persisting into this week, we’re going to offer up a couple of sacrificial positions to the market Gods. Beyond the rather obvious benefits of reducing exposure when the market is falling and having that capital available when things turn around, both these companies have near-term growth challenges that held shares back recently.

The market is having another ugly day, and two of our stocks (SONO and TX) that recently broke our mental stops have not shaped up post-quarter-end last Thursday.

Supply challenges caused a quarterly earnings miss for this industrial clothing maker, making the stock even more attractive. As well, industry growth should provide plenty of opportunities in the near future for the company.

This auto parts maker is expected to grow earnings at an annual rate of 33.5% over the next five years.

In the past 30 days, 10 analysts have boosted their EPS estimates for this oil and gas company. The shares have a current dividend yield of 2.76%, paid quarterly.

Persistent strength in the dollar is putting downward pressure on most metals right now in varying degrees. Some, like tin and aluminum, are resisting the greenback’s strength. Others, like gold and silver, are taking it on the chin as a result.

Analysts expect this insurance online marketplace to grow at an annual pace of 151% over the next five years.

Yesterday the major indexes finished mixed, with the Dow up 71 points and the Nasdaq down 78 points. But the story of the day (and the prior Friday) was a renewed rotation out of growth stocks, with most leading titles down 2% to 3% yesterday alone and a couple more cracking near-term support.

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.