The market has recovered remarkably quickly from last Monday’s sharp selloff. Thus, the long bull market remains intact and I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested.

Today’s featured stock is another conservative one, with a good yield, and in an industry that’s truly unloved. And that means its valuation is dirt cheap.



As for the current portfolio, I am selling our biggest loser, DocuSign (DOCU), and downgrading Tesla (TSLA) to Hold.



Details inside.

Current Market Outlook


After last Monday’s plunge, the initial rebound was very encouraging, and the fact that the major indexes are still doing their best to hang in there is a plus. But, while many individual stocks are in decent shape, the wild rotation that has been a hallmark of 2021 has returned, with money racing into cyclical areas and out of growth stocks the past couple of days. We’re still sticking with a stock-by-stock approach, and most names, despite their wobbles, remain in fine shape, simply pulling in after big runs; others, however, look worse and should be pared back or sold. To be fair, such action isn’t totally surprising—big breaks like last Monday’s usually have some reverberations, so we wouldn’t say the action is negative as much as it’s a sign we’re still in the tricky, choppy environment that has existed for some time. We’re going to leave the Market Monitor at a level 5 and see how things play out in the days ahead.

The good news is that this week’s list is full of names that have enjoyed outsized accumulation of late. Our Top Pick is Devon Energy (DVN), which looks like a leader of a fresh breakout in energy stocks (and cyclical stocks more broadly). We suggest aiming for dips as these names usually pull in after powerful rallies.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Apache (APA)	23	22-23.5	19.5-20
Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding (BHVN)	133	130-134	116-119
Brooks Automation, Inc. (BRKS)	109	102-106	93-95
Cimarex Energy (XEC)	88	82-85	72.5-74.5
Devon Energy (DVN)	35	32-34	28.5-29.5
DoorDash (DASH)	217	206-212	185-189
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS)	58	56.5-58.5	51.5-52.5
Signet Jewelers (SIG)	84	82-85	73-75
Snap Inc. (SNAP)	80	78-81	69-71
SVB Financial Group (SIVB)	674	655-675	600-610

In the September Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we continue to focus on tech stocks, while adding a small-cap biotech stock into the mix. We also review some of our portfolio management musings from last month.

Enjoy!

The market’s weak start to September and this Monday’s decline flipped our Cabot Tides to bearish; we responded by selling half of our leveraged long fund (SSO) and holding the cash. However, even with that decline, we were encouraged to see growth stocks hold firm, and the bounce back since then has also been good to see. If this turns out to be one big shakeout, there are many names on our watch list that we’d like to start positions in, but it’s too soon to conclude that.

Tonight, we have no changes, though the next few days should be key.

Despite the recent dicey market, there are two great opportunities created by a weird interest rate move that is likely to correct itself in the months ahead.

The yield curve, defined as the difference between short- and long-term interest rates, has flattened as the benchmark 10-year Treasury rate has fallen. The rate has fallen from 1.75% in February to the current 1.31%, despite the stronger economy and persistent inflation.



I believe rates have moved far too low. Interest rates are still well below what has been defined as normal for the last decade. The 10-year rate is still well below the pre-pandemic level. Plus, the benchmark rate averaged between 2% and 3% during both the Obama and Trump Administrations.



Interest rates have fallen too far and are likely to trend higher in the months ahead. Two portfolio stocks benefit from the difference between short and long rates and have been held back by the falling rates. These stocks are likely to move higher as the situation reverses

Last week the major indices took another small step backwards. The S&P 500 lost 0.57%, the Dow fell 0.06%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.41%.



The decline deepened among all the major indices Monday as ongoing uncertainties around Chinese property developer Evergrande heightened. Evergrande faces a debt payment on its offshore bonds Thursday, so until some clarity is seen I would expect to see further volatility.



The S&P 500 has now witnessed a 4.4% decline since the closing highs back on September 2. So the 5% pullback everyone has been discussing over the past several weeks could come to fruition over the next few trading sessions.



To be more defensive, this week I am going to sell in-the-money calls to stay a bit on the safe side.

The bull market remains intact, despite this morning’s sharp selloff, so I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested in stocks that help achieve your investing goals.

Today’s featured stock is a very conservative one, a solid financial institution with a good dividend, and the prospect of growing earnings as interest rates rise.



As for the current portfolio, there are no changes. It will be interesting to see which stocks bounce best after the selling pressures ease.

Current Market Outlook


Our intermediate-term trend model has effectively been neutral for months, with the big-cap indexes acting pretty well but most other areas chopping sideways. Today, though, the sellers got their act together, with the S&P 500 decisive diving below its 50-day line and small caps actually falling below their 200-day line! That’s certainly a change in character and, for the first time in months, turns the intermediate-term trend down. Of course, the evidence hadn’t quite lined up for a while now, so we’ve been playing it more cautiously than normal, but now it’s time to step carefully and see how this plays out. As for positive tidings, there are some: The bad news out there (Chinese real estate) is obvious, and looking at individual stocks, many growth titles are now holding up far better than the Dow or S&P 500 (a marked change from earlier this year). Thus, we’re still holding our resilient names and are OK doing a little buying as stocks pull in to support, but it’s not time to be a hero, with the focus shifting more toward preserving capital. Our Market Monitor has moved to a level 5.

If you are aiming to put a little money to work, you want to look for names that have recently shown good-volume buying. Happily, this week’s list has many names in this club, and our Top Pick is Lululemon (LULU), which is emerging from a long rest and has held its recent earnings gap despite the market’s dip.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Align Technology (ALGN)	710	685-705	640-650
Catalent Inc (CTLT)	136	129-133	121-123
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK)	60	58-60	52-53
Cloudflare (NET)	127	120-124	108-110
Entegris (ENTG)	129	124-127	114-116
KKR & Co. L.P. (KKR)	62	63.5-65.5	59.5-61
Lending Club (LC)	27	25.5-27	22.5-23.5
Lululemon Athletica (LULU)	420	407-420	370-375
Natera (NTRA)	120	115-119	105-107
Wingstop (WING)	182	173-177	159-161

Today’s and next week’s issues of Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor are going to look a bit different. I won’t be reviewing all of our portfolio stocks today. Many Wall Street analysts are on vacation, so there will be very little in the way of changes in earnings estimates or new research reports for several weeks.

The big news that affected the market this week was, of course, the dreaded yield curve inversion. This happens when the 10-year Treasury yield goes below the 2-year yield.

This week is a still familiar story in the portfolio, with defensive stocks thriving and moving still higher.

U.S. stock markets have exhibited a high degree of volatility in recent weeks. There are lots of factors contributing to the turmoil, which will ebb and flow, probably for the rest of our lives. So let’s just circle back to why we’re here: We’re here to invest in stocks because over the long term, stocks outperform fixed income investments.

The market has been up, down and all over the place lately. So have our stocks. Oddly enough, from last Thursday’s close through yesterday’s close our portfolio is relatively unchanged—down just 2% using a simple average of each stock’s weekly return.

Remain cautious, but stay flexible. Our Cabot Tides are effectively back on the fence as the upmove of the past few days has been encouraging—a bit more strength could restore the Tides green light.

The market has undergone a radical personality transformation since I released the July issue last week. I’m not hitting the panic button, yet. But it is certainly a situation I will closely monitor.

Emerging and international markets are holding their own as U.S. markets hit new highs in the wake of modest interest rate cuts by the Fed.

Our Cabot Tides are now positive, which means it’s time to put some money to work.

This insurance company reported mixed results for the quarter, but nine analysts have recently increased 2020 EPS estimates for the company.

Please expect volatility, and that definitely includes periodic large market pullbacks. I’m not just saying that as a standard disclaimer. There’s a certain amount of irrational exuberance that’s taking place now.

Today is the expiration of our April Covered Calls. I don’t anticipate adjusting any of these positions today. Here are my thoughts on each.

Despite the market’s recent declines, this security system company has announced some very good preliminary results for its last quarter.

From top to bottom, the Marijuana Index fell 88% from early 2018 to last month’s market low, and now the recovery has begun.

Then yesterday, I sent out some stock trading ideas, and the dam burst. I heard from at least a dozen investors who are clamoring for specific trading ideas. Great!

This investment management company beat analysts’ earnings estimates by $0.65 last quarter, and four analysts recently raised their EPS forecasts for the company.

This is our first company this quarter to report earnings tomorrow morning before the opening bell.

This high yield preferred stock is issued by a mortgage REIT.

With the market surging today, 20 positions under coverage and five more coming tomorrow, we’re going to take advantage of the opportunity to trim a few positions.

The top five holdings of this fund are: Microsoft Corp (MSFT, 11.92%), Apple Inc (AAPL, 11.19%), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN, 9.58%), Facebook Inc A (FB, 3.98%), and Alphabet Inc A (GOOGL, 3.96%).

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.