The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine—and the consequent sanctions and production cuts—has forced producers across several areas of the metals sector to make desperate bids to secure much-needed supplies.

This dynamic is expected to keep metal prices elevated across the board in the coming weeks and months. As noted here previously, there are other fundamental factors behind the bull market in the major industrial metals, but this is diminished by the Russia factor.



In the portfolio, we just added a new position in a silver miner that is showing a surprising amount of relative strength given the current silver market backdrop, as well as a major player in the titanium dioxide market.

There were a lot of positives that built up for the market during February and early March, but that multi-week stretch of improving evidence has certainly run into a wall—the market has taken it on the chin during the past couple of weeks, with the major indexes giving up a big chunk of their gains (the brief intermediate-term trend all-clear is gone), and more worrisome to us, nearly every stock that has run into resistance has at least stalled out, if not come unglued. We don’t believe all of the good vibes built up are out the window; this recent action could easily be part of a longer bottoming process for the market. But we never advise ignoring the evidence in front of us, so we’re pulling our Market Monitor down to a level 5.



This week’s list is heavy on some cyclicals but also some dependable growth outfits. Our Top Pick looks to be one of those, a medical firm with a few good-selling drugs on the market and sold earnings growth projections.

Today’s recommendation is a well-known pharmaceutical giant whose stock recently broke out above the high it hit in 2000, 22 years ago! But that’s not why it’s recommended today. Today’s story is all about new drugs and renewed growth.
As for the current portfolio, there are four stocks rated sell!


Details inside.

Inflation is hot and the Fed just began raising rates. It is expected to hike ten more times by the end of next year.

While yield curve inversion and recession risk is out there, many banks are flush with cash. And consumers are in great shape. As rates go steadily higher, bank stocks are poised to significantly grow earnings.



The most aggressive way to play this is with a bank that’s leveraged to short-term rates. That’s the strategy we’ll take today with a pure-play digital currency bank.



Enjoy!

The market’s evidence improved under the surface for much of February and early March, with the strong rally last month only adding to the good vibes. A pullback wasn’t unexpected, but so far, the way things have retreated hasn’t been encouraging, with a lot of potential leaders taking it on the chin and our nascent Cabot Tides buy signal back on the fence.


To be fair, the decline hasn’t cracked the uptrend in the market or most stocks, and a couple of good days would do wonders. But with few stocks really making headway, we advise going slow, adhering to your stops and holding a good chunk of cash.


Earlier this week, we sold one of our recent buys, and while we have no new sells tonight, we are placing a couple more names on Hold and have relatively tight stops in place in case the selling continues.

The first quarter was kind to our stocks, as they rose, on average, +8.8%, while the broad market fell. We comment on the sources of the gains and any recent news on our recommended stocks.

Greentech remains near-term bullish, an encouraging sign as most subsectors are holding on to gains. Our featured stock is an innovative energy storage venture that has exceptionally encouraging performance since going public in February. It’s not all clear skies however – we tweak some of our holdings this issue to acknowledge specifics with companies.

Today, I’m adding Cleveland, Ohio-based company Cleveland Cliffs (CLF), the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America.

The market remains healthy and thus I continue to recommend that you remain fully invested in a diversified portfolio. My last two recommendations were chip companies that consumers can’t really “see,” but this week’s recommendation is a consumer-facing company, so you can easily “kick the tires.”
As for the current portfolio, there are no sales, but four stocks get downgraded to Hold, for various reasons.


Details inside.

From a top-down perspective, there’s really not many stones you can throw at the market given where it was just three weeks ago. However, when looking at individual stocks, it remains a tricky environment—specifically, most stocks that have approached their old highs have either stagnated or been soundly rejected, with the action has thus far been concentrated in the worst performers of the prior few months. To be clear, we see this more as descriptive than predictive, but we’ll have to see the selling-on-strength vibe change if the upmove is going to continue to gather steam.



This week’s list is again a mixed bag, with some growth but a lot of commodities and cyclicals, too. Our Top Pick is a big player in the steel space that just recently emerged from a big rest period.

Becoming a great investor stems from a passion for learning. Learning new things is what gets me up every morning.

In Cabot SX Crypto Advisor, I will always make my best attempt to distill information concisely and clearly to you the audience so that you can make more informed, independent decisions.



This type of character development transcends assets and instead enables us to develop a rigorous, analytical framework. Sound and lucrative investments take conviction and time to compound. Therefore, concrete theses must be built piece by piece from solid research to identify great businesses and the correct holding period.

Explorer stocks had another good week as markets adapt to the Russia-Ukraine conflict’s impact on commodity markets. Oil prices pulled back a bit following plans to release reserves. This week we look back in history at a global giant in agriculture and food that is backing our new-age recommendation hailing from Montana.

In keeping with last week’s comments, the stock market continues to show a willingness to rise in the near term. More than any other industry, oil refining stocks offer strong upside, including two within our portfolios.

The market’s evidence has worsened some this week—our Cabot Tides are now on the fence as the broad market has softened.

Under normal market conditions growth investors like to get pulled into strong stocks and buy them as they head higher. This is anything but a normal market, however!

The stock market continues to exhibit a willingness to rise in the near term. I’m seeing constructive price chart patterns on both the S&P 500 index and on many individual stocks.

The S&P 500 paused its recovery over the past week, moving sideways over the past five days. Here is my take on the market.

The S&P 500 has now regained more than half of what it lost in the bear market selloff. We are still in the midst of a six-week rally, although it has leveled off in the past few weeks. What can you expect going forward?

The overall market continues to look good, though this week we’ve seen most growth stocks take hits as money has flowed into the broad market.

Two portfolio stocks reported earnings recently and they both are still rated Buy.

This engineering and construction firm is expected to grow by 22.1% next year.

Six portfolio stocks reported earnings recently.

Over the past week, marijuana stocks have been particularly strong, with the strongest being the four leading U.S. multi-state operators that we own—and that means it’s time for another brief update on strategy.

Five holdings are in this ETF.

Two portfolio stocks reported earnings, and ratings remain the same.

This small cap stock was recently added as a member of the US Small-Cap Russell 2000® Index.

This instrument company will report earnings on August 5.

This portfolio stock reported last night what can only be described as an outstanding quarter.

Two portfolio stocks reported earnings yesterday and both remain Buys.

This trucking company has been in the acquisition mode and has a current dividend yield of 1.89%, paid quarterly.

Tyler updates four stocks in the Cabot Early Opportunities Portfolio.

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 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.