The holiday-shortened week was mostly a non-event as the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were mixed. And while the week was quiet, under the surface there was selling pressure in growth stocks and materials that raised some yellow flags.

After a couple of good weeks, some pullback was half-expected—and, when looking at the big-cap indexes, nothing out of the ordinary has been seen. That said, digging deeper, we saw a good amount of selling in resilient stocks, another round of selling in the broad market all while defensive names found buyers. To this point, the potential leaders that took on water are still holding onto intermediate-term support, so we’re not advising any major change in stance. That said, the next couple of weeks will be key (for good or bad), especially as earnings season gets started. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5 today.

This week’s list has an interesting mix of names, including more than a few turnaround-type actors that remain under accumulation. Our Top Pick is a former winner that offers a mix of growth and defensiveness in this environment.

The market took a deep breath last week on the cusp of an eventful upcoming stretch. This week alone we get the latest CPI and PPI numbers before a very pivotal earnings season kicks off on Friday. Potential catalysts – and potholes – abound, so chances are the coming weeks won’t be as calm as the first week of April was. With that in mind, in today’s issue, we’re adding a stock fit to weather any further storms. It’s a century-old company that pays a dividend, trades at a mere 12 times forward earnings, and yet is up 14% year to date – and has been a mainstay in the portfolio of Bruce Kaser’s Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor.

The message is consistent this week with all five of our open positions: All there is to do at the moment is allow time decay to work its magic. And that is exactly what we plan to do.

All five of our positions are in great shape at the moment, so our focus turns to adding a few positions to the mix, a topic of discussion for, well, weeks. Earnings season rears its head this week with several of the big banks due to announce Friday. As a result, I expect to see several short-term positions (30 to 60 days ‘til expiration) being added to the mix. I’ve been very conservative about adding new positions to the mix and I don’t necessarily think all is clear ahead, but I do think we have an opportunity during this earnings season to add a few selective positions to the portfolio.

Earnings season kicks off this week with several of the big banks due to announce towards the latter part of the week.

On Friday, prior to the opening bell, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) are due to announce and will be the focus of our attention this week. I’ve discussed below a potential trade in JPM, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Citigroup and Wells Fargo enter the trading fray this week. That being said, we’ve had decent success with JPM since starting Earnings Trader, with 3 out of 3 winning trades for an average one-day return of 5.3%, so I will most likely stick to the script this week.

Nothing has changed from last week. We currently have two open positions, a bear call spread in DIA and an iron condor in IWM. Our deltas continue to be skewed towards the bearish side of things, so we will need to balance out our deltas by adding a bull put spread or some other bullish leaning strategy…potentially a bullish leaning iron condor? So, the focus this week, like last week, will be adding some positive deltas to the mix to bring the portfolio closer to a delta-neutral state. My focus will be on expiration cycles ranging from 35 to 60 days until expiration.

The holiday-shortened week was mostly a non-event as the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were mostly mixed. And while the week was quiet, under the surface there was selling pressure in growth stocks and materials that raised some yellow flags.

The holiday-shortened week was mostly a non-event as the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were mostly mixed. And while the week was quiet, under the surface there was selling pressure in growth stocks and materials that raised some yellow flags.

This week’s action has been a disappointment, with growth stocks suffering selling while defensive names have picked up steam. Still, nothing much has changed--the top-down evidence is mixed, and growth stocks, while taking on water, haven’t suffered anything abnormal to this point. Thus, given that we’re about half in cash, we’re mostly standing pat in the Model Portfolio tonight.

More than $15 trillion in assets are linked to the performance of the S&P 500 index in some way, according to S&P Dow Jones.

Apple, at about $2.4 trillion, and Microsoft, at $2.1 trillion, are so large that, taken together, the two companies would be the third-largest sector of the index, behind tech and health care. This share is trending lower as other companies rise.

We’re digging into another compelling MedTech story this month.

The company in focus is a spine specialist. It’s been grabbing market share from larger players by growing a portfolio that covers the full spectrum of spine care, from imaging and surgery planning to surgical tools and implants.

It’s a great example of how intense focus on a specific market can set one player apart from the big boys. Enjoy!

Despite the banking worries of last month, the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq have strung together three straight weeks of gains.

For more than a year, gold remained stuck in a holding pattern while other metals roared higher in response to global manufacturing demand and supply shortages. All the while, the global economic and geopolitical situation was becoming increasingly tenuous, prompting us to repeatedly wonder when a flight to the safety of gold would transpire.

Our comments on recommended companies that reported earnings, news on several companies and some brief thoughts about the effects of the war in Ukraine on investments.

It has felt like a horrible week, but the reality is that, despite both the Nasdaq and the Dow both falling into correction territory, all but two of our stocks have held above their previous lows.

After a four-day losing streak, stocks surged and oil prices fell yesterday, as volatility continued. Wary investors lack conviction as they track the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine. Higher inflationary expectations and lower growth are leading to investors hedging risks and buying opportunistically.

Isn’t this fun? The market is up big today. But things have been very ugly. And we might not be out of the woods yet.

As of yesterday’s close, the S&P 500 was down 12.49% YTD. The technology stock-heavy Nasdaq was about 19% lower for the year and more than 20% below the November high, officially in bear market territory. The latest down leg is because the Russia/Ukraine situation is getting worse.

By the looks of the market, skyrocketing fossil fuel prices have recently made Greentech the growth stock safe harbor. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, oil, as represented by the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) is up 24%, a spike to be expected from the uncertainty around the supply of fuel commodities.

The market fell today, led by growth stocks, with many resilient names taking on water. At day’s end, the Dow fell 97 points but the Nasdaq was off 214 points and most growth funds were off more than 2%, with some much more.

The market is bouncing around a lot on a road to nowhere.

It rallies one day and then sells off again the next. The indexes fell into correction territory when Russia invaded Ukraine and have bounced around the same level since. The invasion didn’t cause much of a selloff. But the market can’t get any real traction as long as the uncertainly remains.

The market hit correction territory last week. And it’s gone nowhere since.

The Russia/Ukraine situation continues to plague stocks. But the crisis really hasn’t dragged the market down much. Sure, it pulled stocks into correction territory, but they didn’t have far to go.

The events recently in Russia re-enforced a valuable lesson: stay within your circle of competence. Last week, many were calling Russia a generational buying opportunity, as Russian shares plummeted. It looked moderately tempting given that the VanEck Russia ETF (RSX) had plunged ~40% in a week.

After being stuck in a lateral range for the past year, gold was finally able to overcome the psychological $1,900 an ounce barrier that has held back all previous rallies since early 2021.

In today’s ETF Strategist update, I’ll answer two questions that came in this week. Here is a summary, and I go into further detail in the short podcast that accompanies this update.

This finance company beat analysts’ earnings estimates by $.07 last quarter. The company has a current dividend yield of 5.26%, paid quarterly, plus a habit of paying special dividends.

Avalara (AVLR) reported Q3 results yesterday that surpassed expectations with revenue up 42% to $181.2 million (versus $170.3 million consensus). Adjusted EPS of -$0.03 beat by $0.04. Several recent acquisitions contributed meaningful growth in the quarter ($16.2 million in revenue) which, if taken out, means the organic revenue growth rate was closer to 29%.

Earnings Roundup includes ALTR, BILL, NET, HUBS, MRVI, TIXT, GFL.

This aerospace company beat earnings estimates by $0.20 last quarter. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 2.24%, paid quarterly.

Revolve (RVLV) announced Q3 revenue of $244.1 million, up 62% and ahead of the $228.6 million (+60%) analysts had expected. By segment, REVOLVE grew by 56% (to $204.2 million) while FORWARD grew 95% (to $39.9 million).

Sprout Social (SPT) reported Q3 results yesterday that beat expectations. Revenue was up 46% to $49.1 million versus expected growth of 42%. Adjusted EPS was -$0.03 versus $0.01 expected. Customer count grew 20% to 30,705, customers spending over $10K in ARR grew 57% to 4,380, and customers spending over $50K grew 98% to 478.

Sprout Social (SPT) reported Q3 results yesterday that beat expectations. Revenue was up 46% to $49.1 million versus expected growth of 42%.

For its most recent quarter, this REIT posted FFO of $1.85 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.71 per share. The company also surpassed revenue forecasts, reporting $412.49 million for the quarter. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 2.53%, paid quarterly.

This auto and truck dealer reported third-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of $4.47 per share, up 54% from last year and beating analysts’ earnings estimates of $3.54.

ZoomInfo (ZI) reported Q3 results yesterday that surpassed expectations. Revenue was up 60% to $197.6 million (54% organic growth). Growth with enterprise customers continues to shine as ZoomInfo now has over 1,250 customers (74% customer growth) with over $100K in annual contract value (ACV) and total ACV growth of 85% from these customers (ZoomInfo has over 25,000 total customers).

This tech company beat analysts’ earnings projections by $0.20 last quarter. The shares have a current dividend yield of 2.21%, paid quarterly.

This educational provider is set to pay a walloping $7.01 in special dividends if you are a stockholder as of October 29, 2021.

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.