California is burning and the rest of the country is in a deep freeze. It seems like a metaphor for the mixed messages we’ve been getting from the market in recent weeks, with stocks running very hot and cold since the start of December as the major indexes have mostly held near their highs but the under-the-surface action has been wobbly at best. The last six weeks have been rough on small caps in particular. As both a value investor and a contrarian, that spells opportunity!

So today, we add one of the highest-profile, more beaten-down small-cap stocks out there to our Buy Low Opportunities Portfolio. The stock is miles from its Covid-era highs, but it’s starting to build momentum for the first time in years: shares have tripled since bottoming five months ago. And it’s a name virtually everyone knows.

Details inside.

Editorial Note: With the market closed tomorrow, January 9, we’ve bumped up this week’s Issue to today.

At the end of 2024, we were in a “buy now to win tomorrow” type market. Now, we’re in more of a “buy now to win in the coming quarters” type market.

Given this backdrop, our first portfolio addition of the year is a lower-risk, high-quality software company specializing in digital banking solutions. It’s the fastest grower in its space and is on pace to deliver its first full-year profit in 2025.

Like a lot of stocks in both the software and financial arenas, shares of this company have been a little weak lately. I think that’s good – we can step in at a price modestly lower than just a few weeks ago.

While the outlook for 2025 is positive, things are changing.

Sure, this bull market has driven the S&P 500 nearly 70% higher. But most of the gains are from technology stocks. Until this past summer, nearly all the bull market returns were driven by technology. The rest of the market had done very little.

But the rest of the market is waking up. While artificial intelligence (AI) will likely continue to be a powerful growth catalyst, its dominance over everything else might not be as pronounced in 2025 as it has been in the past. Earnings for other stocks are catching up.

The earning growth difference between the “Magnificent 7” companies and the other 493 S&P 500 companies is expected to plummet from 27.8% last year to 8.3% this year. The rest of the market is cheap, has momentum, and will likely get hot this year as stocks experience an earnings growth spike that could last for years.

In this issue, I highlight a healthcare stock that looks highly promising in 2025. It is poised in front of the aging population megatrend, which makes a successful pick so much easier, and it will likely experience a sizable earning spike in the years ahead. It is an existing portfolio stock of which half the shares were sold last year. It’s a great time to buy back the other half.

With the calendar flipping to 2025 and the long holiday weeks/weekends behind us, most traders will be back at their desks starting yesterday. Let the fun begin!

The new year is off to a good start, with many of the areas that took lumps during December (namely the broad market and growth stocks) showing strength through three days—and, just as important to us, many individual stocks have perked up, with some resilient names pushing to new highs and others that dipped to support bouncing. That’s a good thing, but we’re also keeping in mind the fact that early January is often tricky (lots of sharp moves in both directions), that the intermediate-term trend of most indexes and measures is still neutral-to-negative and that there remain lots of crosscurrents among individual stocks, with some selling off while others strengthen. As we wrote above, we are encouraged and will nudge our Market Monitor up to a level 6, but, while this is a good first step, we want to see the action continue to conclude that the December air pockets are a thing of the past.

For the third straight issue, this week’s list is heavy on growth stocks, which remains a sign that big investors aren’t hunting for safety. Our Top Pick is a name we love fundamentally and whose stock has held up relatively well in recent weeks despite a huge run. If you enter, use a loose stop given its volatility.

In the wake of a rare down December, stocks have come roaring back to kickstart 2025, up more than 2% through the first three trading days. It’s early yet, but perhaps the bulls are taking control again after a sluggish end to an otherwise very productive 2024.

Still, there were enough yellow flags under the surface to close out the year that it’s worth taking a cautious approach for now. So today, we add a mega-cap, high-yield dividend stock that’s been a staple of Tom Hutchinson’s Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio for some time.

Details inside.

With the calendar flipping to 2025 and the long holiday weeks/weekends behind us, most traders will be back at their desks starting today. Let the fun begin!

With the calendar flipping to 2025 and the long holiday weeks/weekends behind us, most traders will be back at their desks starting today. Let the fun begin!

Happy New Year to everyone and wishing you all the best investing in 2025.

Let’s keep in mind this year the merit in legendary global investor Sir John Templeton’s sage advice:

“Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers.”

With this in mind, I see four big trends out there that offer us the opportunity to take a contrarian approach to make some money and lower risk.

It’s been a good year for the market and an even better year for the Stock of the Week portfolio, with the average year-to-date gain on open positions of 52%. Let’s hope the good times keep rolling in 2025. While I doubt the S&P 500 and Nasdaq will be able to maintain their torrid pace of the last two years, there are scores of under-loved sectors and stocks out there, and the bull market remains intact, ready to propel them forward in the New Year. Today, we add a little-known growth stock that just got the stamp of approval from Cabot Top Ten Trader Chief Analyst Mike Cintolo.

Details inside. And Happy New Year!

This week and next week’s Monday morning Week in Review will be focused on position updates so that I can spend the last two weekends of the year with my family. Then starting the week of January 6^th, it’s back to full blast for the Cabot Options Trader and Cabot Options Trader Pro service.

This week and next week’s Monday morning Week in Review will be focused on position updates so that I can spend the last two weekends of the year with my family. Then starting the week of January 6^th, it’s back to full blast for the Cabot Options Trader and Cabot Options Trader Pro service.

The market has regained its footing, and here comes Nvidia (NVDA).


All eyes are on the Nvidia earnings report scheduled to come out after the closing bell on Wednesday. It was an Nvidia earnings report two years ago that featured a massive demand for artificial intelligence products and services that sparked the AI craze and ignited a powerful rally in technology stocks.

The market dodged a bullet. And the rally forges on.

After a 5% dip from the high, stocks started climbing again in mid-April and have regained all the losses. Last week’s inflation report had the potential to derail the recent rally. But it didn’t. And the good times are continuing.

In today’s note, we discuss the recent earnings reports from Kopin Corporation (KOPN), Adient (ADNT), and Bayer (BAYRY).


Our note also includes the monthly Catalyst Report, which we encourage you to look through. This report is a listing of a few companies that have reported a catalyst in the past month. These catalysts include new CEOs, activist activity, spin-offs, cyclical turnarounds and other possible game-changers. We source many of our feature recommendations from this list. You will find it nowhere else on Wall Street.

We’ve been able to enjoy a break in the earnings action this week (finally), and without a lot of company-specific updates, we’ll keep things short and sweet today.

The main message is that the broad market continues to rise on the back of rate cut expectations and a falling 10-year yield (down to 4.35% from over 4.7% a couple weeks ago).

Major indexes are at all-time highs as data indicated inflation retreated a bit. And many of our positions are soaring.

That includes new addition Neo Performance (NOPMF), whose shares were up 17% during the stock’s first week as an Explorer recommendation as the company reported a swing to profitability. It wasn’t our only holding to post double-digit performance last week.

Details inside.

The market is at all-time highs, the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the most recent Super Bowl, and so-called meme stocks are headed to the moon. Is it January 2021 all over again? Sure feels like it.

Yes, GameStop (GME), AMC Entertainment (AMC) and the like are back, with those and a few others nearly tripling this week. The last time that happened, things didn’t end so well for the meme stocks. Or the market. Should it be a similar red flag for the bull market this time around?

It’s been a good month in the market, so far. The S&P 500 has regained all the dip from April and is now within a whisker of the all-time high. The driving forces have been an improving interest rate story and solid earnings.

With 92% of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings increased an average of 5.4% over last year’s quarter. But it’s better than that. If you take out the report of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), average earnings growth would be 8.3% for all the other stocks on the index. That’s a strong gain.

The market has regained its footing. After a 5% pullback in the earlier part of April, the S&P 500 has since regained nearly all that was lost, and the index is within bad breath distance of the high.

Earnings have been good. With 92% of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings increased an average of 5.4% over last year’s quarter. But it’s better than that. If you take out the report of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), average earnings growth would be 8.3% for all the other stocks on the index. That’s a healthy gain.

Viatris (VTRS) reported 1Q 2024 results yesterday, narrowly missing on revenue but coming in line with earnings expectations at 67 cents per share. Sales of older drugs Lipitor and Norvasc declined, with the branded drugs unit’s revenue dropping 4.5% to $2.31 billion. The company has completed its women’s healthcare business divestiture and expects its API unit sale to close soon. Despite the challenges, Viatris reaffirmed its financial guidance for the year, projecting total revenue between $15.5 billion and $16.0 billion, with adjusted EBITDA estimated at $5.0 billion to $5.4 billion. The company remains focused on debt reduction, having paid down $546 million during the quarter.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Do a little buying. The market’s evidence has improved over the past couple of weeks, with our Cabot Tides on the verge of a green light and our Two-Second Indicator having flashed an all-clear. Even so, growth measures (Aggression Index, Growth Tides) are still broadly neutral, while earnings season has been tricky for individual stocks. Put it together and we’re doing a little buying tonight but starting slow: In the Model Portfolio, we’re adding a half-sized stake (5% position) in TransMedics (TMDX) and adding a 3% position in Cava Group (CAVA), leaving us with around 36% in cash. We’re also placing Pulte (PHM) back on Buy. Details below.

Earnings reports have been on the menu this week. Some have gone our way, with Zeta (ZETA) and EverQuote (EVER) having fantastic reactions. We’ve taken a few punches too, and Talkspace (TALK) was cut on weakness while Alphatec (ATEC) is down but not yet out of the portfolio.

I’ve upgraded Intapp (INTA) this week as that stock looks like it could move significantly higher. We also add to our Weave (WEAV) position today in anticipation of a rebound in the share price.

Warren Buffett doesn’t see any great values in this market. At least that was the gist of the message he delivered in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha last weekend. When asked why Berkshire’s cash hoard had swelled to $189 billion in the first quarter – up from $167.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 – the Oracle of Omaha replied, “We only swing at pitches we like.”

In other words: the world’s foremost value investor doesn’t see many great value stocks right now. Instead, he’s been putting his cash in Treasury bills – investing more every Monday in 3- and 6-month T-bills, which yield roughly 5.4% – and biding his time until he sees an attractive stock investment.

In the Buffett’s Patient Investor portfolio, we currently own the TXN January 17, 2025, 135 call LEAPS contract at $53.05. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

After SPY’s historic, 8.9% rally in November (which resulted in a few subsequent losses), I want to sell a bear call spread in SPY going out to the January 19, 2024, expiration cycle. We continue to stick with the probabilities knowing that losing trades will come from time to time. We don’t play on the fringes of the bell curve. Anomalies will occur, and when they do, oftentimes when selling premium using a high-probability approach, losses follow. That’s understood. And that’s why we diversify the strategies (a.k.a. poor man’s covered calls) we employ. But when considering November saw the second-best November since 1980, behind only the pandemic-driven rebound in 2020, remaining disciplined to invest within “the curve” by using a high-probability approach is key.

We are recommending shares of CNH Industrial (CNHI) as a new Buy. The company is a major producer of agriculture (80% of sales) and construction (20% of sales) equipment for customers around the world and is the #2 ag equipment producer in North America (behind Deere). It also provides related supplies, services and financing.

In the Yale Endowment portfolio, we currently own the EEM January 17, 2025, 29 call LEAPS contract at $12.15. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

As part of the Income Wheel approach, we allowed our KO calls to expire in the money at expiration last week. As a result, our shares were “called” away at the price of 55.

AMGN is currently trading for 262.97.

We currently own the AAPL January 17, 2025, 135 call LEAPS contract at $48.00. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

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.

We have four remaining positions that are due to expire at the November 17, 2023 expiration cycle. So, let’s go ahead and buy our short calls back and immediately sell some more premium.

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.