Energy stocks have been by far the best-performing market sector over the last couple of years. They went from worst to first in dramatic fashion. And the good times may be just beginning.

The industry has had very low capital spending and expansion in recent years. Crude oil inventories have fallen below the five-year average and are likely headed far lower. OPEC has pledged dramatic production cuts to push prices higher. There is also a high degree of geopolitical risk. In fact, Goldman Sachs analysts are forecasting oil prices to get back to $95 per barrel before the end of this year.

The fundamentals are in place for prices to average a lot higher than they are now over the next few years. And that will lift stock prices. Stocks are also cheap, have among the best dividend yields on the market, and tend to perform well during times of inflation.

This issue highlights one of the highest-growth energy companies on the market. It has the ability to grow production by double digits for many years to come and at very low cost.

Today, I’m recommending a “buy when there’s blood in the streets” type of stock:

Key points:

• The company owns valuable real estate in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• The underlying asset value implies 7x upside to the stock’s current price.
• Insiders have been buying aggressively over the past year.

All the details are inside this month’s Issue. Enjoy!

Despite a concerning start to the week for the bulls, Friday’s big rally provided some hope that the market could get back in gear. By week’s end the S&P 500 had lost 0.8%, the Dow had fallen 1.24%, and the Nasdaq had gained 0.07%.

We don’t want to write the same thing week after week, but the story remains mostly the same as it has for the past two months: There are definitely some positives out there, including a good number of setups, some positive earnings reactions and a resilient set of major indexes, especially given the banking worries—but the broad market is mostly iffy while we continue to see repeated air pockets and selling on strength. We still think there’s lots of bullish dry tinder that could spark if things go right, but until it happens, we think it’s best to remain cautious.

This week’s list sports more than a few recent earnings winners, as well as a few tight setups. Our Top Pick is a growth name that’s getting costs under control—combined with its cookie-cutter story, that could produce reliable bottom-line growth soon. Try to buy on dips.

Stocks continue to chug along in the same range they’ve largely been in since the end of March. We’ll see if this week’s inflation reports (CPI on Wednesday, PPI on Thursday) move the needle in either direction. In the meantime, one sector that is finally showing signs of life after two years of being beaten to a pulp is cannabis. And so today, we add one of the top cannabis stocks recommended by Cabot Cannabis Investor Chief Analyst Michael Brush. It’s a familiar name to even intermediate-term Stock of the Week readers – and it was up 25% last week!

Details inside.

Our focus this week will be on PayPal (PYPL) and Disney (DIS).

We got back on track this past week with a small winning trade. In total we’ve placed five trades this earnings season, with a 60% win ratio and a cumulative loss of -16.1%. With a few weeks left on the earnings calendar, we have several more opportunities to bring our returns back to breakeven for this cycle or possibly into positive territory.

Our overall return is 28.9% - certainly nothing to write home about, but also no complaints as we thankfully sit in positive territory during what has been an incredibly challenging market for all participants over the past year.

We locked in a small 6.8% profit in our SPY iron condor last week and added another bear call spread, in SPY, to the mix later in the week. Our total cumulative return stands at 124.52% with a win ratio of 87.1% (27/31 winning trades) since we started Quant Trader just under one year ago.

We have two positions on at the moment, both due to expire at the June 16 expiration date. Fortunately, both are hovering around the same price we sold them for, so all is well at the moment. And given we are leaning bearish in both positions, a move lower will obviously immediately help both positions and possibly lead to some early profit taking.

Not much has changed since last week, other than that we are seven days closer to the May 19, 2023, expiration cycle coming to a close. Thankfully, our three remaining May positions all remain in good standing.

We locked in profits in both PFE and KO and immediately sold more premium just over a week ago and I will most likely do the same in our May 19, 2023 positions this week which should bring our total return to around 75%.

Despite a concerning start to the week for the bulls, Friday’s big rally provided some hope that the market could get back in gear. By week’s end the S&P 500 had lost 0.8%, the Dow had fallen 1.24%, and the Nasdaq had gained 0.07%.

Despite a concerning start to the week for the bulls, Friday’s big rally provided some hope that the market could get back in gear. By week’s end the S&P 500 had lost 0.8%, the Dow had fallen 1.24%, and the Nasdaq had gained 0.07%.

The market remains in a rough spot, with a hawkish Fed that continues to raise rates into what’s become a rolling bank crisis, with some big names going under and others walking the plank. Far more important to us than the news is the market’s reaction to the news--and it remains mixed when it comes to the indexes (intermediate-term trend neutral), but growth stocks remain iffy at best, with many good-looking setups falling apart on earnings of late, and with relatively few really powering ahead. All of this can change in a hurry, but until it does, we continue to think growth investors should remain generally cautious and flexible as we wait for a more certain environment that will entice big investors to pile in.

In tonight’s issue, we have no changes to the Model Portfolio (though one small position is on a tight leash), holding north of 60% in cash and working on building our watch list. Elsewhere tonight, we write about the market’s very narrow nature, highlight the housing group (which has a history of trending even in bad markets) and have re-added a few names back to our watch list after some old favorites have popped on earnings.

The Federal Reserve yesterday raised the target for its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% to a new range of 5%-5.25%, the highest since September 2007. This will impact the value and stability of the U.S. dollar and stock markets in several ways.

During the only stable dollar eras of the last century, annual GDP growth averaged 4.9% from 1922-29, 4% from 1948-71, and 3.7% from 1983-2000.

In comparison, over the last two decades, a more volatile dollar saw average growth of only 1.9%. Had the dollar remained stable since 2000, with a steady 3.7% growth, the economy would be nearly 50% greater than it is today, and we probably would have avoided all these financial crises along the way.

The market is down on the day, though individual stocks aren’t doing too badly. As of 2 pm EST, the Dow is off 280 points while the Nasdaq is off 165 points.

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.

As online gambling continues to accelerate, so does the fortune of this provider. The company is expected to grow by 30.30% next year.

We had a good run in steel and steel products manufacturer Nucor Corp. (NUE), America’s largest and most diverse steel maker. Unfortunately, however, that run has come to an end and I now recommend selling our remaining position in the stock.

Shares of CS Disco (LAW) are selling off today on what’s been a generally weak day for growth stocks (though getting better as we move into the early afternoon). The catalyst here is a secondary offering by selling shareholders (non-dilutive) that has not priced yet (probably tonight, or tomorrow).

Fundamentally, all is well in the marijuana sector as the industry’s leaders continue to grow, both organically and by acquisition. The average rate of revenue growth for the plant-touching companies in our portfolio in the most recent quarter was an amazing 132% from the previous year.

In the past 30 days, seven analysts have raised their EPS forecasts for this utility. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 3.77%, paid quarterly.

These preferred shares are issued by a global financial company.

Nickel futures are back to a 7-year high and recently hit $19,000 a ton in a resurgence from last month’s pullback. Nickel prices are being supported by strong battery-related demand from electric vehicle (EV) makers.

Analysts are increasing their EPS estimates for this electronics company. The company’s earnings are expected to grow at an annual rate of 30% over the next five years.

We’ve been enjoying a crazy-strong market in many growth stocks lately, which has padded our paper gains in many of those positions. Today we’re going to step off the gas a little, book a few modest profits and step aside from some positions that haven’t done a lot lately.

The major indexes finished mixed yesterday, with the Dow off 269 points while the Nasdaq was up 11 points, though growth stocks were actually hit fairly hard, with a few more names showing potholes.

This telecom company is forecasted to grow earnings by 40.25% annually over the next five years.

A few Cabot Options Trader subscribers have asked me about ways to protect gains in their portfolios, so I thought I would write to everyone with a couple of strategies using options to hedge your portfolio.

A subscriber recently asked me if I keep a journal of my trades. Many traders keep journals so they can look back at their trades and evaluate what they did right and what they did wrong.

Want to know how the big institutional investors use options? Here is an example of how one trader spent $132 million on three technology stocks.

Options trading has its own vernacular. To know how to do it, you need to know what every options term means. Here are some of the basics.

Our Cabot Momentum 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 Momentum Trader features.