This is a massive week for the stock market. Forty percent of the S&P 500 will report second-quarter earnings results; the Fed holds its July meeting; the PCE report is due out Thursday, jobs numbers come out Friday, and President Trump’s tariff deadline is Friday, though several key deals have already been struck. With stocks precariously at all-time highs entering the week, these news events loom as potential minefields. If the market can navigate it without getting blown up, then perhaps it will continue to rise until Labor Day.

But we can only go with the evidence in front of us. And today, we try to strike while the market’s iron is still hot by adding a mid-cap medtech stock that was Tyler Laundon’s top pick in this month’s issue of his Cabot Early Opportunities advisory.

Details inside.

This week’s Monday Week in Review is a bit different than most weeks, with a focus on our open positions, as I spent most of my weekend getting caught up on unusual option activity from the previous week while I was in Europe. Let’s dive in …

This week’s Monday Week in Review is a bit different than most weeks, with a focus on our open positions, as I spent most of my weekend getting caught up on unusual option activity from the previous week while I was in Europe. Let’s dive in …

The overall market continues to look very bullish whether looking at our core indicators or the many unusual signs of strength (that portend higher prices down the road). That said, there are some headwinds near-term, especially in many growth stocks, which have been doing more chopping than advancing in recent weeks. That’s no reason to be negative, but we’re following along with that growth stock evidence, trimming our sails a bit while looking to see what earnings season brings.

Uncertainty is growing while the market is perched at the all-time high.

The S&P 500 soared by a remarkable 29% in just over three months. At the same time, tariffs are back and there is still a high degree of uncertainty regarding the economy.

Sure, the overall market is high. But what is true for the S&P 500 isn’t necessarily true for many individual stocks. Technology drove the S&P 500 index higher. But much of the rest of the market is well below the all-time highs. Some stocks and sectors are barely positive YTD.

Energy has lagged the market all year. At the same time, the fortunes of certain companies are improving. Natural gas volumes are growing at a strong clip as demand for electricity is skyrocketing from data centers. At the same time, overseas demand is expanding with no end in sight.

In this issue, I highlight an energy company with rapidly growing demand for its services that sells at a cheap price and pays a high yield. We don’t have to chase stock prices into the stratosphere. Let’s invest where it’s still April.

Complacency is creeping back into the market, but we remain vigilant as the earnings season cranks up into full gear. That said, the broad backdrop is still in good shape as evidenced by some of our favorite indicators. We’ve also done some pruning recently (mostly among laggards) as the market’s multi-month run is becoming a bit extended. But we still see opportunities, especially in areas investors have overlooked. All told, near-term wobbles are possible, but we remain bullish as the odds favor the new uptrend bringing us higher over time. We’ll keep our Market Monitor at a level 7, but we’ll stay nimble as earnings come in.

This week’s list contains some formerly out-of-favor stocks that are now in much better shape as industry trends improve. Our Top Pick is an engineering firm that shows all the classic signs of being under strong institutional accumulation. We’re OK using dips to enter.

Stocks are at all-time highs, continuing to climb a Wall of Worry that’s made of tariff fears, economic worries, political turmoil and overseas conflicts. Eventually, a pullback is probably in order. But for now, the good times are rolling, and we need to keep capitalizing on them. So today, we add a dividend payer that’s really more like a growth stock, a recent recommendation from Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson. The tech stock is getting a major boost from (what else?) AI, but Tom thinks it still has plenty of room to run – even while trading at all-time highs.

Details inside.

The independence of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s position is important, and uncertainty over his role is impacting market sentiment. Dynamism and stability is America’s golden goose. Stay a bit on the defensive and conservative and keep adding some international stocks through the summer.

Data showed consumer inflation keeping pressure on the 30-year bond’s yield which touched 5% for the first time since early June. And in Japan, the trend is the same, with rising government bond interest rates raising the costs of paying interest on its debt equal to 250% of its GDP.

With the broad market making new highs in the face of renewed tariff threats, it seems investors are willing to shrug off macro concerns, at least for now.

We’ll heed the bullish action by stepping into three new positions this month, but hedge our bets by making one of them a half-sized position. We also add two new names to our Watch List.

One common market saying is that rotation is the lifeblood of a bull market, but that’s only partly true: If the rotation sees leaders pull in normally while buying pressures broaden out, that is a good thing, giving the market a stronger foundation for future gains. But if the leaders crack intermediate-term support while money chases beaten-down titles, that can lead to trouble as the market (and those laggards) often end up following the leaders lower. Happily, so far, the rotation that began in late June and has carried on since has been more in the former camp. While we’ve pulled in our horns a bit, we remain overall bullish. We’ll move our Market Monitor to a level 7 and see how things go from here.

This week’s list definitely has a value and turnaround flavor, following along with some of the rotation seen in recent weeks. Our Top Pick reacted well to earnings last week (heaviest daily volume since 2020!) after management reinstated bullish guidance. Start small and add on the way up.

Not much has changed with the market in the two weeks since our last issue. Stocks have largely stagnated, which is no surprise given the calendar and the 20% off-the-bottom rally from April that preceded it. Now comes the hard part: Can stocks continue to climb higher now that they’re hitting new highs and essentially priced for perfection? That could be difficult, especially with tariffs back in the news (in a bad way) and Q2 earnings season underway. So, to prepare for another potential pullback, today we add a value stock that comes from an industry that was left for dead a few short years ago but is now having a moment: movie theaters. It’s a stock I recommended in my Cabot Value Investor advisory last week.

Details inside.

The market’s big-picture outlook remains excellent, and we’re keeping most of our focus on that. However, there’s no doubt that we’re starting to see some growth stock wobbles, as today was the 3rd day of distribution in the group while money rotates into the broader market. That’s no reason to be defensive, but we are selling one name tonight that flashed abnormal action and holding a bit more than 30% cash on the sideline for now. Our goal is to ditch any laggards or names that crack and eventually replace them with big leaders, some of which are in a rest phase that should result in higher-odds entries.

The market has been singing a more bullish tune lately and small caps are back in the headlines.

That’s because small caps enjoyed a nice rally after last week’s CPI and PPI data came out and the 10-year yield retreated.

Market observers have seen that the market rally has been broadening beyond just the Magnificent 7 and that small and mid-caps (SMID-caps) have been getting in on the action as well.

The Trump Administration is off and running along with Cabot Explorer stocks as markets closely watch the potential for tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico.

Mexico and Canada are America’s two largest trade partners, and both countries are bracing for major economic disruption should Trump follow through. Mexico and Canada send about 80% of their exports to the U.S. Market turbulence in stocks based in Mexico or Canada could create an opportunity for us.

What a difference a week makes!

Early last week, things were looking pretty gloomy for the market, with stocks on a six-week losing streak dating back to early December and interest rates, as measured by the 10-year Treasury yield, stretching to 14-month highs. More than 300 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were trading at 52-week lows.

While the market news is inundated with Trump stories as he has issued a massive number of executive orders on his first day in office, the real market catalyst right now actually started last week.

There were a slew of executive orders affecting the energy industry but no real surprises. The improving story remains essentially the same since the election. There was likely some relief that large tariffs have not been announced, at least so far. But the Trump news is overshadowing last week’s market-altering news.

A week ago, the market was teetering on the brink. But it teetered in the right direction.

The benchmark ten-year Treasury rate had soared above 4.8%, dangerously close to the late 2023 peak of about 5%. December CPI inflation was reported last week. A bad number could have thrust the 10-year rate above the peak, almost certainly prompting a selloff in stocks. But Wall Street was happy with the number and things went the other way.

In today’s note, we discuss pertinent developments and ratings changes for some of the stocks in the portfolio, including Alcoa (AA), Atlassian (TEAM), GE Aerospace (GE), SLB Ltd. (SLB), Starbucks (SBUX), Super Hi International Holding (HDL) and Teladoc Health (TDOC).

The market’s trends were looking pretty iffy until better-than-feared inflation data came out on Tuesday (PPI) and Wednesday (CPI).

Those data releases finally gave Treasuries a boost and knocked the 10-year yield down from last week’s level of 4.8%, which was the highest since November of 2023 (the 10-year yield hit 4.74% last April, which was close, but not quite as high as last week).

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain cautious but stay alert. The five-week drubbing for the broad market and many growth titles has caused sentiment to really drop (a good thing), and this week’s bounce (as interest rates dipped) is intriguing … but at this point, we’ve seen one decent day of action after five tough weeks, so we’ll stand pat with our large (60%-ish) cash position and watch closely to see how this rally develops.

Fourth-quarter earnings season is underway, and while expectations are high at an estimated 11.9% average year-over-year growth among S&P 500 companies, according to data collected by Factset, the actual numbers probably won’t matter much to the market’s short- and intermediate-term direction.

Ignore inflation numbers too. CPI and PPI – this week’s dual reports of the December results – were encouragingly cooler than expected. But in the end, what really matters is how they impact the Fed’s decision-making, which we probably won’t know until at least the end of the month.

Things are getting dicey in the market.


The problem is interest rates. Growth expectations are strong following the election. At the same time, inflation has been sticky and not moving lower. Investors were already expecting higher rates for longer when they got a gut punch with last week’s strong jobs report.

Uh oh. The rally is in trouble.

The market sort of wobbled into January after a rough December. It started good but things turned a little ugly last week after a better-than-expected jobs report and worries about sticky inflation.

In today’s note, we discuss pertinent developments and institutional ratings changes for some of the stocks in the portfolio, including Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Alcoa (AA), American Airlines (AAL), Atlassian (TEAM) and Toast Inc. (TOST).

WHAT TO DO NOW: Do a little more selling. We’re seeing another round of selling in growth stocks, with some more abnormal action among a few names. To be fair, most of the action is mixed at this point, whether looking at the overall market (Tides on the fence, etc.) or individual stocks, but the increasing number of air pockets out there has us paring back a bit more today—we’re going to sell one-third of AppLovin (APP), which is our largest position, as well as cut bait on Toast (TOST), which is our biggest loser. Our cash position will now be around 36%.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The market’s rally has run into trouble, and while there are more than a few growth stocks that look fine (if not great), air pockets are reappearing in many issues. Today, Nutanix (NTNX), which looked picture-perfect heading into its earnings report, is getting mauled along with most other software stocks. We’re going to sell the rest of our stake today, thinking today’s meltdown after a prolonged run isn’t likely to lead to good things in the intermediate term. We’ll have more details (and likely other changes) in tonight’s issue of Cabot Growth Investor.

Cava Grill (CAVA) Reports. FTAI Aviation (FTAI) Update

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain bullish, but continue to prune weak names and hold/buy stronger ones. In the Model Portfolio, we’re letting go of the rest of our small position in DraftKings (DKNG), which is breaking down further today after bad news on the tax front. We’ll hold the cash for the moment, leaving us with around 28% on the sideline.

Yesterday Alphatec (ATEC) fell below support near 10.5.

Cannabis sector negativity and weakness persists, so the group continues to be a buy.


Now it is time to continue to average in at current prices, ahead of the next catalyst-induced move up.

Back on May 8, I suggested getting long cannabis as a contrarian trade because sentiment had turned dark, and there was a potential catalyst on the horizon.

Today, a whopping eight Profit Booster positions will expire. Most are “slam-dunk,” full-profit trades, while others will go down to the wire.

The big takeaway, before we dive in, is we are going to let the situation play itself out, and come Monday/Tuesday of next week we will revisit our profits, as well as how we will manage the remaining positions.

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 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.