U.S.-China turbulence led to a rollercoaster week for global stocks with some recovery during the past couple of days. Our Emerging Market Timer has turned negative, as EEM has fallen below both its 25-day and 50-day moving averages.

Several of our portfolio companies posted strong earnings this week and the portfolio is already in a conservative stance. We have a new recommendation today that will diversify the portfolio and give us exposure to a country with a youthful population and a robust economy.

One thing you can count on in the markets is change! Just when we were moving along nicely, Trump threw a wrench in the works with his new war on China tariffs. That caused a few down days, but we did have a bit of recovery yesterday.

The economy continues to sail smoothly, however, with unemployment and inflation low, and the housing market is doing well. As a result, and as you’ll see in our Market Views and our Market Sentiment Barometer, sentiment remains bullish, but with a dose of caution.

As of yesterday, the market’s intermediate-term trend is now negative, so certain defensive measures are now appropriate. These might include lowering your overall risk profile by holding cash when possible, taking profits when stocks are extended, and being less tolerant of poor behavior.

Current Market Outlook


The market’s meltdown today cracked the intermediate-term uptrend that got going back in January, with all major indexes (and many leading stocks) closing well below their 50-day lines today. Big picture, we still see this as a bull market, so we’re still OK holding most of your shares in your strong, profitable stocks; encouragingly, despite taking on water, many stocks are still hanging in there. That said, you also shouldn’t be complacent—after four months with no meaningful pullbacks, it’s likely (not for sure, but likely) the market needs more than six trading days to consolidate the January-April advance. In a nutshell, you should keep tight stops in place on losers and laggards, give your profitable names a bit more rope and, on the buy side, be very selective and/or keep positions small. We’re moving our Market Monitor down to a level 5.

Interestingly, this week’s list is very heavy on growth-y names despite the market’s plunge. Our Top Pick is Match.com (MTCH), which has a great long-term story, and the stock has re-emerged after earnings.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Avalara (AVLR)	102.00	64.5-67.5	56-58
HubSpot (HUBS)	582.89	170-175	157-160
Lithia Motors Inc. (LAD)	146.30	107-111	97-100
Match (MTCH)	0.00	66-69	58-60
PayPal (PYPL)	147.00	105-107.5	98-100
Roku, Inc. (ROKU)	150.46	74.5-77.5	64.5-66
Tandem Diabetes (TNDM)	74.77	60-63	54-55.5
Teradyne (TER)	82.83	44.5-46.5	42-43
TopBuild (BLD)	111.00	77.5-81	70-72
Woodward (WWD)	111.91	105-108	95-97

The smooth uptrend of the past four months has run into a trade war roadblock this week, with the major indexes and many stocks taking hits as tariffs look set to rise. Our Cabot Tides are now on the fence, and while we have no changes tonight, we are holding 20% in cash and have at least one name on a tight leash.
We’ll go with whatever happens from here—should this turn into a short-term shakeout, we’ll hold our stocks and could even do some buying. But should the Tides and/or a stock or two crack, we’ll do some work on the sell side.

The markets were doing just fine until Trump decided to stir up the Chinese tariff pot again. Employment continues to be healthy; the housing market remains strong and consumer and advisor sentiment is bullish. We’ll just have to see how this plays out, but I imagine it will be a flash-in-the-pan situation, lots of talk and probably little action.

Meanwhile, our contributors are long-term bullish and short-term cautious, as you’ll see in our Market Views section.

The stock market isn’t done rising. Nevertheless, it’s certainly okay to begin accumulating cash with which to buy low during the next stock market correction. The way I personally handle that is when I sell a stock, I put half of the proceeds into my brokerage account’s money market fund, and I buy shares of stock with the other half. In that manner, I get to participate in the market’s bull run while also “saving for a rainy day”. The best antidote to a stock market correction is having money available to buy low!

The market remains in good health, and all Cabot’s market timing indicators are positive, telling us the odds are that the market will be higher in the months ahead.
For today’s recommendation, I have a well-known dividend-paying mega-cap that has a very good chance of providing good capital gains in the months ahead, thanks to a landmark deal with Apple.
As for the current portfolio, overall, our holdings are performing quite well, with many hitting new highs in recent weeks. The portfolio is now full, but I have no sell recommendations. Details in the issue.

For value-focused investors, this year’s prologue has been a welcome change from the turmoil experienced in early 2025.

In just the past few weeks, some of last year’s most ignored or underappreciated laggards have posted outsized gains, with rallies that have made even momentum-driven tech stock traders envious. Even more remarkable is the fact that much of that strength has been concentrated in ultra-defensive areas of the market like consumer staples, utilities and healthcare.

The market rotation continues to be the main story out there this week, though rumblings of a potential strike on Iran, an update from the January FOMC meeting, and a slew of earnings reports and economic data releases have been giving investors plenty to think about.

In terms of the rotation, the equal‑weight S&P 500 ETF (RSP) is up 5.5% so far this year, illustrating that leadership is broadening beyond the narrow group of mega‑cap stocks that drove much of last year’s performance.

Year to date, the S&P 600 SmallCap Index is up 8.3% and the S&P 400 Mid‑Cap Index is up 7.9%. Both are comfortably outperforming the S&P 500, which is up just 0.1%, and the Nasdaq, which is down 2.1%.

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the horse is upon us.

China is expecting an incredible 9.5 billion trips to be made during the 40-day Lunar New Year travel period. Chinese automakers are also on the move as the country’s numerous brands sold nearly 200,000 vehicles in Britain last year, doubling their market share to almost 10%.

As U.S. investors have shifted from risk-on to risk-off mode in recent months, a clear disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots” has materialized.

Let’s start with the “have-nots.” Financials have fared the worst so far this year (-4.7%), followed by technology (-3.1%), communication services and consumer discretionary (-2.8% each). The downturn in the two tech-related sectors in particular is a stark departure from recent years, when technology led the charge of the current bull market.

Cyclical stocks are soaring and technology is floundering in the transformed market.

The bull market is turned upside down. For most of the first three years, technology, and particularly AI stocks, soared while most other stocks did very little. Now, previously meandering stocks are killing it while technology sinks.

Strong fourth-quarter earnings are confirming what the market was already doing.

Current estimates based on earnings reported so far are for 13.2% overall S&P earnings growth for the quarter. It’s a solid quarter and the fifth straight quarter of double-digit earnings growth. In terms of sector performance, cyclical companies are killing it, and technology is floundering, just like before earnings.

Like many coffee aficionados, I have something of a love/hate relationship with Starbucks (SBUX). My main gripe is that the company’s food and beverage offerings have always been pricey compared to the fare served in most fast-food restaurants and run-of-the-mill coffee houses.

The outperformance of small caps continues.

Through Tuesday’s close, the S&P 600 is up 10% year to date versus just 1.6% for the S&P 500.

All but three small-cap sectors are outperforming their large-cap counterpart. The strongest small-cap sectors are materials (+20%), energy (+23%), industrials (+17%), and tech (+11.4%).

Let’s talk about the power of staying invested.

Sure, when the market turns south – and I’m not even sure last week’s mini-dip qualifies – it makes sense to pare back on your weakest stocks and put a larger portion of your portfolio in cash. But taking your ball and going home – selling out of all of your stocks when times are tough – is not a winning strategy. Here’s why.

NOTE: We’re sending this a day early as I’m soon to embark on a trip with the kiddos over the next week. I will be working a good amount from the road, though, and will have updates if need be. Also, next week’s issue will be published as scheduled.

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WHAT TO DO NOW: The market remains very mixed, with growth measures still generally pointed sideways to down, while the broad market remains in solid shape. What’s interesting, though, is that we’re seeing more growth stocks kick into gear, along with some huge buying action in a few “cyclical growth” names. Tonight we’re making one move—adding a half-sized stake in Macom Tech (MTSI)—but are keeping our eyes open for a broader character change among growth stocks. Our cash position will be around 53%.

Today could be a big day for cannabis stocks.

The reason: We may get an important update on the rescheduling timeline.

Cannabis investors will be watching closely today to see whether Attorney General Pam Bondi offers a rescheduling update when she appears before the House Judiciary Committee. Upbeat comments could spark a sharp cannabis sector rally. The hearing starts at 10 a.m. EST.

I’m excited to share a couple of enhancements to Cabot Early Opportunities —improvements designed to sharpen our focus and better help you stay on top of the stocks we own.

Aerospace and oilfield service supply company KLX Inc. (KLXI) reported a strong fourth-quarter 2018 earnings beat this week (January year-end). Non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) were $1.00 vs. the expected $0.88.

This homebuilder beat earnings estimates by $0.03 last quarter, and forecasts for the next five years are for more than 26% annual growth.

The Chinese biotech market is heating up and the stock of this company is rapidly gaining momentum.

Following what seemed to be a perfectly successful quarterly report on Monday evening, YY opened up today but then plowed steadily lower all morning. The stock found support at 117, and rebounded slightly finishing the day near 120.

Stifel Nicolaus has recently upgraded this chemical company’s shares to ‘Buy’, and nine analysts have raised their earnings estimates for the company in the past 30 days.

The Boards of Directors of AXA and XL Group (XL) have unanimously agreed that AXA will purchase property & casualty insurer and reinsurer XL Group for $57.60 cash per share, a 33% premium to the March 2 closing price and a 59% premium to the XL share price when it joined the Buy Low Opportunities Portfolio on December 6, 2016.

Despite less-than-stellar media reports. analysts still expect this investment bank to post double-digit growth.

The selloff has put a fork in our brief Cabot Tides buy signal from earlier this week, telling us the correction that began in late January isn’t over. The recent bout of weakness isn’t totally surprising given the market’s V-shaped recovery.

This fund two times the inverse (-2x) of the daily performance of silver bullion as measured by the London Silver Price.

This restaurant operator reported record results for 2017: 32.6% sales growth and EBITDA increase of 42.7%. The company also declared a special dividend of $0.04 per share, payable on March 12, 2018, to shareholders of record on February 27, 2018.

Updates on two of our stocks that reported earnings this week.

This software provider’s earnings estimates were just raised by 16 analysts.

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.