All of our positions look to be in great shape at the moment. Yes, there is a good chance we will be issued shares of WFC at the September expiration in 11 days, but that’s just part of the income wheel strategy. Sell puts until you are assigned shares. Sell calls against those newly issued shares until they are called away. Repeat.

We officially enter the quiet period for earnings this week. That being said, several companies with decent options liquidity are due to report this week in Kroger (KO) and DocuSign (DOCU). And next week several more are due report, with the highlight being Oracle (ORCL). All of this is basically a reminder that just even though another earnings season has passed us by there are still opportunities, while limited, to be had before the next earnings season begins.

Last week the market extended the recent rally. The move higher pushed the major indexes into a short-term overbought state while the VIX has, not surprisingly, moved into a short-term oversold state. Typically, when we see this type of short-term extreme hit the market a reprieve is right around the corner.

I had intended on adding a new position to the mix last week, but after coming down with my first case of Covid, I was down and out for a few days with little energy for adding new positions. However, now that I’m back in action I fully plan on adding several new positions to the portfolio this week, most likely over the next two days. Stay tuned for the alert.

The market is on course to have a nice week as the S&P 500 is higher by 3%, the Dow is up 1.2% and the Nasdaq tacked on 3% of gains. The VIX is trading at 13, which is lower by 17% on the week, which given the market’s gains is not surprising ahead of a long weekend.

The market is on course to have a nice week as the S&P 500 is higher by 3%, the Dow is up 1.2% and the Nasdaq tacked on 3% of gains. The VIX is trading at 13, which is lower by 17% on the week, which given the market’s gains is not surprising ahead of a long weekend.

One down, one to go.

Cannabis stocks soared today (August 30) on news that Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends cannabis get downgraded to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, from Schedule I.

I predicted this a few days ago on the Cabot website, and in my last Cabot Cannabis Investor update on August 9.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Turnaround Letter. We hope you enjoy reading the September 2023 issue.

The attention of most investors, commentators and analysts has been on the winners, notably the Magnificent Seven, driving this year’s stock market rally. As contrarians, we are fine with letting a few overpriced trendy stocks capture the spotlight. One place that draws our attention is the other end of the spectrum – those with the worst performance. While most of these stocks fully deserve the market’s dour judgment, some have favorable changes underway. We look into four large and mid-cap stocks that fit this description and one that does not. We also discuss a tactic to help improve one’s success in investing in out-of-favor stocks.

Our feature recommendation this month is Advance Auto Parts (AAP), one of the four major auto parts retailers. The shares have fallen sharply out of favor, but a comprehensive and much-needed overhaul is now starting.

We also include our recent Sell recommendations: Toshiba (TOSYY), Holcim AG (HCMLY), First Horizon (FHN) and ESAB Corporation (ESAB), and our suspension of our rating of shares of Kopin Corporation (KOPN).

Ahead of the long holiday weekend the market had yet another good week. The S&P 500 gained 1.75%, the Dow rallied 1.5%, and the Nasdaq rose another 1.9%.

This week in an attempt to diversify the portfolio we are adding an energy play.

Last week had a couple of big news items and, not surprisingly, the market was all over the place, with some strong up action, a wild reversal and then some support after the Fed’s talk. All in all, we consider the shows of support modestly encouraging, along with the fact that sentiment has taken a sharp turn lower as the worries of the world come back into focus. But nothing has really changed with the here and now: The intermediate-term trend of the major indexes and most stocks is pointed down, with few names making any progress. That can obviously change, but for now, we’re still patiently waiting for the buyers to retake control. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5 tonight.


This week’s list is another mixed set of stocks, though we like the fact that we’re seeing a few more positive earnings moves. Our Top Pick is trying to leave behind a multi-month range after its recent earnings surge.

Stocks are finally showing signs of life after a brutal August, and many of our Stock of the Week positions have fared even better than the market of late. Don’t expect much movement this week as investors will likely play out the summer string until they lock in after Labor Day. Will the (modest) recent gains hold in September, notoriously the weakest month on the investment calendar? We’ll start to find out next week. In the meantime, we won’t try and do too much, which is why today we’re adding a solid-if-unspectacular big-cap retailer that has a habit of beating the market. It’s a new addition from Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson.

Last week we sold calls against newly issued shares in PFE, BITO, GDX and KO. Since we are only a few days into each trade, I plan on posting the details of each position, per usual, in next week’s issue. Until then, I intend on adding one more position to the mix this week. Again, my goal is to have 8 to 10 ongoing positions using the income wheel approach with the occasional one-off trade to bring in some extra income from time to time.

The market had many ups and downs last week, and despite a nasty sell-off on Thursday the indexes closed the week mostly higher. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, the Dow lost 0.45%, and the Nasdaq rose by 2.26%.

This note includes our review of earnings from Mattel (MAT) and Nokia (NOK). Next week starts the deluge, with Vodafone (VOD), Dril-Quip (DRQ), General Electric (GE), Xerox (XRX), Polaris Industries (PII), Holcim (HCMLY), Kraft Heinz (KHC), M/I Homes (MHO), Lamb Weston (LW), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), Shell (SHEL) and Newell Brands (NWL) reporting.

There were no ratings or price target changes this week.

The major indexes had another good day, today—both the Dow and Nasdaq rose 162 points.

This is the million-dollar question: With incoming data anything but straightforward the Fed is trying to thread the needle ever so gently to guide the economy down to a soft landing.

The market has been strong over the last month. In fact, the S&P 500 has rebounded more than 9% from the June lows. Is this rally for real?

I doubt it.



There was the normal bounce off the lows and now investors can focus on earnings. The bad inflation report is out of the way and the Fed has tipped its hand that there will be a 0.75% rate hike later this month, which is better than the 1% hike that was expected after the 9.1% June inflation report.

Earnings season is coming!
We didn’t have much news this week, but our companies will start reporting in late July and August.

Other than Citigroup’s earnings release and Barrick Gold’s release of preliminary sales data, no other company produced meaningful news. Perhaps this is to be expected when investors are putting immense weight on company-specific results and their respective outlooks.

The beauty of dividends is that cash keeps rolling in no matter how bad the market stinks.

The market has rebounded off the lows of June, for now. There is a window where investors can focus on earnings. The bad 9.1% inflation number came out last week and the Fed appears to have tipped its hand on a 0.75% rate hike later this month. That’s an improvement form speculation of a 1.0% hike after the inflation report.

A recent addition to the Undiscovered Portfolio is the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO).

The name and the ticker are pretty much dead giveaways as to the nature of this fund. It tracks the largest, most liquid, newly listed U.S. IPOs.

It’s no secret that gold is, historically, the world’s most widely preferred safe-haven asset in times of economic turmoil. Gold’s polar opposite is copper, which typically benefits the most when the global economy is strong.

By looking at both metals—separately and together—we can get a “snap shot” view of the market’s expectations for the economy’s near-term (six-to-12-month) performance. We can also get some potentially useful trading clues for both metals—and even for silver—when we look at the copper-to-gold ratio.

This note includes our review of earnings from Wells Fargo (WFC) and our ratings change from yesterday for Credit Suisse (CS) from Buy to Sell.

Next week, Mattel (MAT) and Nokia (NOK) report earnings, followed by the earnings deluge which starts the week of July 25^th when 13 companies report.

The Cabot Turnaround Letter is traveling this week, so we will not be including a podcast in this update.

This energy company is raising its dividend to $0.73 per share as of March 1. The current annual dividend yield is 3.07%, paid quarterly.

Shares of this REIT have recently taken a hit, giving it a nice entry point. The current annual dividend yield is 4.31%, paid monthly.

The shares of this medical device company have recently been upgraded at UBS to ‘Buy.’

After the close yesterday, SiTime (SITM) reported Q4 results that handily beat expectations. Revenue of $75.7 million was up 88% and beat by $4.7 million while adjusted EPS of $1.32 was up 207% and beat by $0.23. Gross margins increased 2.5% to 69.4%. The company ended the quarter with $559 million in cash (partially thanks to $460 million raised through equity offerings in 2021) and no debt.

Conoco’s earnings report, released earlier today, displayed the company’s strengths. Fourth-quarter profits of $3.0 billion compared to a $(0.2) billion loss a year ago and were 25% higher than the impressive third-quarter profits of $2.4 billion. Rising oil prices combined with restrained spending helped drive earnings higher.

The shares of this medical device company have recently been upgraded at UBS to ‘Buy.’

The shares of this medical device company have recently been upgraded at UBS to ‘Buy.’

Xometry (XMTR) has just announced that preliminary Q4 revenue will be $65.5 - $67.5 million. This is in the range of what we expected when factoring in the $3.5 to $4.5 million of acquired revenue from the Thomas Publishing business. And it’s above management’s prior Q4 guidance of $60 - $62 million. Excluding the acquired revenue, growth was roughly 64.5%.

This fintech company is expected to grow at an annual rate of 27% over the next five years.

The shares of this mega beverage maker were recently upgraded by Guggenheim to ‘Buy.’ The company has a current annual dividend yield of 2.81%, paid quarterly.

The shares of this mega beverage maker were recently upgraded by Guggenheim to ‘Buy.’ The company has a current annual dividend yield of 2.81%, paid quarterly.

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.