Monday, shortly after the market open, we exited the stock components of three of our June covered call positions (FNKO, IGT, RRC). With these sales, here are our profits for all four June positions:
The bull market rolls on, and our portfolio continues to deliver, so I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested in stocks that help achieve your investing goals.
Today’s featured stock is making a repeat appearance, because we lost it on a shakeout earlier this year and I think it’s worth trying again.
As for the current portfolio, Tesla (TSLA) and Trulieve (TCNNF) are upgraded to buy, but we’re selling Coca Cola (KO), mainly because something’s got to go.
There are definitely some positives among the action out there—growth stocks, for instance, have continued their rally, with many “old” winners finally showing some power in both volume and price (including some names that have poked out to new highs). That said, the overall action in the market remains hectic: Cyclical stocks have cascaded for the most part while growth has ramped, with most major indexes we track now below key support. Moreover, on a daily basis rotation remains intense (like today), with stocks and sectors getting whipped around depending on what’s in favor on a given day. Again, it’s not bearish per se, but the environment is like Jell-O wobbling on a plate, making it tough to pinpoint entries and hold onto stuff. We’re OK with some buying, but until more investors row in the same direction, you should keep it smaller than normal and generally aim for dips.
This week’s list looks like 2020 all over again, with lots of technology and growth earnings spots. Our Top Pick is HubSpot (HUBS), which showed top-notch relative strength during the growth stock correction and has now started to power ahead.
Growth stocks continue to slowly repair the damage, with the evidence rounding into form. However, the trick of actually making (and keeping) much money remains very tough — few stocks are showing persistent moves, and those that rally for two to three weeks tend to back off. Maybe that will change—today was certainly a plus for growth stocks — but the point is the environment remains tricky and challenging.
In the Model Portfolio, we’ve been riding things up and down of late, but tonight are holding what we have. There are a couple of names we’re watching that we would like to own, but again, these have ramped up in recent days so we’ll wait for a little shaking and baking. Open up for all of our latest thoughts.
In the June Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we take note of the market’s string of all-time highs and accelerating pace of consumer spending.
Against that backdrop we present a batch of stocks that offer exposure to a variety of trends, from retail spending and auto maintenance to consumer lending, customer care for enterprises and even vaccine manufacturing.
SPACs – special purpose acquisition companies – had their moment. For about six months until this spring, they were the hottest thing in the market – hotter even than meme stocks. That ended, though, thanks to a combination of a few poor deals that made institutional investors pull back from supporting SPACs and regulatory crackdowns that have dramatically slowed new blank-check creation. In the Greentech space, however, that retreat means there are some opportunities to be found amid the market detritus. That’s our focus this issue. We sorted through the more than 850 active SPACs in the market, identifying 71 that are ESG focused and then whittling our selections down from there.
These mark our first additions to the Excelsior (“ever upward”) portfolio. Excelsior is our special opportunities portfolio for occasional dips into equities that don’t fit into our regular Real Money Portfolio approach and strategy. The Real Money Portfolio is meant to be fully invested at 12 holdings of equal starting size, a design allowing us to seek market-beating results while containing long-term risk. Our approach in the Real Money Portfolio for each selection is largely the same too – a collection of chart and technical screens bolstered by fundamental evaluations. Excelsior will tend to be riskier: we don’t have a recommended position size among its recommendations (that is, don’t anchor buying to the Real Money Portfolio sizing) and selections often don’t have the trading history to be vetted deeply by technical analysis–as is the case with our SPAC choices. Still, we see SPACs as a type of late-stage venture capital opportunity and there are some very exciting businesses coming to market in solar, EVs and materials. We also discuss ways to grab quick, easy profits in any SPAC. Enjoy!
No issue ranks higher than climate change on our clients’ lists of priorities. They ask us about it nearly every day. -Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager in his annual letter to CEOs.
A 19th Century Japanese print of Ben Franklin’s electrical experiment
This Friday is the expiration of June options, and for the time being it looks like the Profit Booster portfolio will have yet another spectacular month of returns as IGT, PGNY, RRC are trading well above the strike price of the calls we sold, while FNKO is at the strike, which is also a good situation.
The bull market rolls on (though never in a straight line, of course) and Cabot analysts continue to discover great new investments.
Today’s featured stock is an established company that manufactures a very wide variety of sensors for industry, with the automotive industry being number one. Growth prospects are good, and the stock is a bargain.
As for the current portfolio, Broadcom (AVGO) is upgraded to buy, and we’re taking profits in Barrick Gold (GOLD).
Our thoughts on the overall environment remain the same—growth stocks continue to slowly repair the damage, though most stocks aren’t out of the woods yet (many have moved right into some tough resistance), and there remains lots of selling on strength and rotation on a daily basis (cyclical stocks look iffy), so it’s tough to make much progress. All in all, we’re going to keep our Market Monitor at a level 6—we’re close to raising it, but the lack of upside breakouts and the continued chop keep us in a “trust but verify” mode. There are things to like, but we need to see more.
Interestingly, this week’s list is heavy on growth stocks, though finding buy points is tricky. Our Top Pick is DocuSign (DOCU), which has shown excellent accumulation since earnings, though we favor keeping it small and/or trying to get in on dips.
Things could actually be turning optimistic for the market and it’s looking like this could be more than just a bounce back from the overdone December lows. There is still risk out there. But a catalyst may be emerging for strong upside with increasing optimism for a U.S./China trade deal. My market prognosis is changing from pessimistic to good with a chance of great.
U.S. stocks delivered great performance in January and are now taking a breather. As such, I expect the S&P 500 index to trade between 2625 and 2825 for a while. The trading range might end up being a little higher or a little lower, but for now, a repetition of the trading range that took place between late October through early December seems most likely to occur. I anticipate that the market indexes will continue advancing later this year.
The market has gotten a little jumpy given the potential impacts of a broader coronavirus outbreak and the trickle of earnings-related announcements, which have the grounding effect of telling us what’s actually going on inside companies these days.
It’s still a bull market, but our Cabot Tides are close to the fence and the odds are that the recent burst in selling pressures probably won’t go away overnight.
To follow up on last Thursday’s issue that highlighted the worsening China virus, I believe it is appropriate for us to hedge China risk and volatility with an inverse China exchange-traded fund (ETF).
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.
Current Market Outlook