Despite some mid-week wobbles for stocks, especially in the growth sector, the market once again closed the week at new highs as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow rallied 2.2% and the Nasdaq advanced by 2.3%.

Despite some mid-week wobbles for stocks, especially in the growth sector, the market once again closed the week at new highs as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow rallied 2.2% and the Nasdaq advanced by 2.3%.

To begin, just a heads up that there will be no Cabot Wealth Explorer issue on November 13 as I will be in transit for a mining and resource conference in Senegal.

Morgan Stanley (MS) notes that stock picking is back, with single-stock activity as opposed to funds and ETFs seeing a significant rise in recent months. This is interesting as there are now more ETFs trading on exchanges than stocks. Blending the two together is the optimal strategy for most.

Before we dive into this week’s covered call idea, we need to clean up a couple positions from the October expiration cycle.

After an ugly day October 10, the major indexes showed solid overall support last week, but under the hood was another round of volatile action, The market’s intermediate-term trend continues to tilt up, though we’re still taking things on a stock-by-stock basis and are closely watching earnings season, which is about to rev up. In the meantime, we’re just following the plan that’s been working for us: Being selective on the buy side, holding strong names (albeit with some partial profits on the way up) and also raising stops as time passes. We’ll again stick with a level 7 on the Market Monitor.

This week’s list is a mixed bag in terms of sectors and setups, with some we’re considering entering on strength and others on pullbacks. Our Top Pick is likely in for years of accelerating growth, and after a big run into early October, the recent pullback looks normal. We’re OK starting small here or on a bit more weakness.

Stocks proved their resilience once again, shaking off the U.S.-China tariff re-escalation fears and creeping back toward their early-October highs. An encouraging start to third-quarter earnings season helped, but that was mostly the banks. The real test will come in the next couple weeks, when most of the big tech companies report. So it’s still choppy waters out there. With that in mind, today we add another fairly low-risk play to the Stock of the Week portfolio in the form of a healthcare REIT that offers a decent yield. It’s a stock Tom Hutchinson just recommended to his Cabot Dividend Investor audience.

Details inside.

Coming off a nasty close for the market the previous week, the indexes rebounded this last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, the Dow added 1.6%, and the Nasdaq rallied 2.1%.

Coming off a nasty close for the market the previous week, the indexes rebounded this last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, the Dow added 1.6%, and the Nasdaq rallied 2.1%.

The market is taken another shot across its bow, with the indexes bending, with many leaders getting dented and with our Two-Second Indicator still negative. That said, while bending, things haven’t broken, with our Cabot Tides still positive and most leaders refusing to crack. We’re not complacent, as we’re holding our 30% in cash and placing three stocks on Hold--but we’re also not running for the storm cellar, as earnings season is likely to determine the next big move in the market and leaders.

The market has hit a little turbulence as we wade into the early innings of the Q3 earnings season. But despite the bumps, there are more than enough stocks acting well enough to fill the pages of the October Issue.

This month, I continue to spread things around, exploring new ideas from the Fintech, software and coal (yes, coal!) industries while plucking two steady performers from our Watch List to add to the portfolio.

Enjoy!

What started as a good week for the bulls was quickly vanquished by renewed U.S./China trade fears last week. How long these worries will again weigh on the market is anyone’s guess. However, Friday’s ugly selloff was enough to send the S&P 500 lower by 2.4% on the week, while the Dow fell 2.7%, and the Nasdaq lost 2.5%. Monday’s encouraging bounce-back erased some of those gains, however. We’ll see where it goes from here.

There have been a few shots across the bow in recent weeks, and last week was another, with Friday’s big selloff hitting just about everything, though today’s bounce took some sting out of that. Overall, after six months with hardly any pullbacks, the market could easily be ready for a “real” correction—however, anticipating such a decline isn’t advised. Don’t get us wrong, our antennae are up and we continue to advise being selective, but we’re mostly focused on the next few days: A strong bounce in leaders and the indexes would be positive, but a break of last week’s lows would likely usher in a volatile, corrective period. For now, with most of the evidence unchanged, our Market Monitor remains at a Level 7.

This week’s list has something for everyone, though it’s again full of more growth-y titles. Our Top Pick is part of a newly strong group, and whose stock actually rebounded to a new high today.

The market continues to hover near the high. The S&P is up over 13% year to date and about 38% from the April low.

The bull market continues to roll on. Stocks are hovering within bad-breath distance of the new high made just last week.

Why shouldn’t the market keep climbing? We are in a Fed rate-cutting cycle. There’s no sign of recession. And the artificial intelligence catalyst is driving projected earnings in the market’s largest sector into the stratosphere. It looks like stocks want to move higher and will continue to do so unless something pops up that makes them go down.

As the dividing line between the public and private sectors becomes increasingly blurred, it’s readily apparent that long-term investment decisions must now be evaluated through a new lens. And that means asking a simple question: “Could the financial asset I’m interested in acquiring be potentially influenced through direct federal intervention?”

WHAT TO DO NOW: Hold your dry powder for now. The elevated near-term risk for the market we had mentioned is beginning to play out, with the indexes pulling in, many stocks taking hits and, importantly, our Two-Second Indicator giving a warning sign. We’re not anxious to sell here, but we also want to see how this plays out given a couple of yellow flags that are out there. Tonight, we’ll stand pat with our good-sized (38%) cash position and will watch how things unfold.

We’re about to head into a crucial time of the year for small-cap stocks. That’s because the Q3 earnings season will fire up toward the end of October and run into early November.

This earnings season will let us know how small caps fared over the summer months and also give us a glimpse into how they’re expected to do in Q4 and the beginning of 2026.

Small caps have been outperforming large caps since the beginning of August.

The market has finally started to show some cracks the last couple days, but the bull market remains very much intact. Last week’s 25-basis-point Fed rate cut was expected, but should nonetheless act as a tailwind – or at least a floor raiser – in the coming months, especially as Jerome Powell and company signaled that they plan to cut twice more before year’s end. And yet, there’s no getting around the fact that stocks, as a whole, are overvalued, with the S&P 500 trading at 23.8x forward earnings – its highest point since late February.

The market just keeps on going. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq made yet another new high on Monday. And that makes me nervous. I guess I’m just not built to receive continuing good news without getting suspicious.

So much for the cranky post-summer investor and the historically rough September. The S&P is up 3.4% for the month so far. It’s also up 13.8% YTD and 38% from the April low. Why not? We’re in a Fed rate-cutting cycle. The AI catalyst is going strong. And the economy is nowhere near recession.

Thursday’s massive rally in Intel (INTC), a Cabot Turnaround Letter portfolio holding, did more than just underline the just-announced $5 billion stake that Nvidia (NVDA) initiated in the company. It also highlighted the degree to which growing federal involvement in tech- and defense-related companies—particularly those used to enable AI and other “mission critical” applications—has been driving the seemingly endless rallies of many leading tech sector stocks.

Investors got the 25bps cut we expected yesterday, and as a little bonus, the Fed’s dot plot indicates potential for two more rate cuts this year. That’s what the CME’s Fed Watch tool is projecting as of mid-morning today as well.

That said, the bond market might not fully believe it. The 10-year Treasury bond yield is trading higher today.

Alibaba (BABA) shares surged 15.5% this week as the company announced that it had completed a roughly $3.2 billion capital raise. Better yet, Baidu (BIDU) shares jumped a stunning 29% in the stock’s first week as an Explorer recommendation.

But could quantum computing be a bigger investment opportunity than artificial intelligence (AI) as the U.S.-China rivalry escalates?

Value stocks have outperformed the market of late, with the Vanguard Value Index Fund (VTV) up 2.9% in the last month vs. a 2.3% return in the S&P 500. Granted, that’s minuscule outperformance, but it’s a sign that investors are starting to look for value with the major indexes at or near all-time highs for the last couple months.

The market is at another new high and looking good. Anticipated Fed rate cuts and a revitalized artificial intelligence trade are driving stocks higher.

It’s Fed Day! And a rate cut is expected. That’s even better than Prince Spaghetti night to Wall Streeters. More than 90% of traders are expecting the first fed funds rate cut in 2025 to be 0.25%. Hopes for a 0.50% cut likely went out the window with the higher-than-expected August CPI number.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The indexes continue to act fine, but individual growth stocks remain hit or miss based on the news of the day. Today we’re going to sell our position in MP Materials (MP), taking a tiny gain and holding the cash (which will now be around 35%). Details below.

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.

I’m recommending that we sell our position in Helen of Troy (HELE).

We’re going to step aside from Byrna Technologies (BYRN) today.

Helen of Troy (HELE) is imploding on earnings today, despite beating estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue, however, declined 9% year over year, while earnings per share of 59 cents were less than half the $1.21 the company earned in the same quarter a year ago, though they were north of the 54-cent estimate

Sell a Half Position in UiPath (PATH)

Sell Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) & ThredUp (TDUP)

Fill Second Half: Sensient (SXT) and Unity (U)

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 brief guide on using the Cabot Top Ten Trader.

Chief Analyst Roy Ward applies these six yardsticks, or price multiples, to help him find undervalued companies: P/BV, P/CF, P/D, P/E, P/S and PEG ratios.

This is a collection of tips on stock chart reading, something that’s key to Mike Cintolo’s growth stock methodology, but something few individual investors (and even professional investors) understand too well.

Benjamin Graham is widely acknowledged as the father of modern security analysis and value investing, and his books are considered the bibles for individual investors and professionals.

Today’s new addition to the high yield tier, Pattern Energy Group (PEGI) is a yieldco, a relatively new class of high yield investment.

Here’s a refresher on what qualities help a stock pass our Individualized Retirement Income System tests for inclusion in the Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio.

We take a look at some of the major rotations of the past year, and how, when—or if—they were resolved.

What does risk tolerance really mean, and how can you figure out what yours is?