The markets traded sideways through most of April. But since then, the choppiness has returned—along with worries about the uncertainty regarding the debt ceiling, the expiration of the immigration-limiting legislation, and ongoing debate about the possibility of a recession.

Yet, economically speaking, the trends are still healthy. Manufacturing has held up, employment continues to rise, and job openings are still underutilized (as you can tell if you’ve been in a restaurant lately!).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game-changer that will usher in the next wave of technological advancement that will have a dramatic positive impact on certain stock prices for years to come.

The phenomenon got a huge shot of adrenaline when Nvidia (NVDA) blew away earnings estimates, citing greater demand for AI technology far sooner than expected. It’s like the opening gun has sounded for the new craze.

The efficiency and cost-saving potential for businesses are massive. Companies can’t afford to fall behind. For many businesses, rapid AI adaptation is a matter of survival. There is a stampede to apply cutting-edge AI technology to businesses before the competition. Companies that provide AI-enabling products and services will benefit mightily for years to come.

In this issue, I highlight the great income stock of a company that will surely benefit from the race to adopt AI. The price is still very reasonable, and it pays a high dividend yield. There is a window of opportunity after the first wave of price surges levels off before the longer-term price appreciation sets in.

Today, I’m recommending an aerospace company that is poised to double revenue over the next 3 years.

Key points:

· Earnings to triple over the next three years.

· Cheap valuation. Good dividend yield and share buyback program.

· High insider ownership.

All the details are inside this month’s Issue. Enjoy!

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.

After a heady run, further short-term wobbles are possible, even likely, as the market and many stocks digest their May/June gains and as fear levels rise with interest rates. That said, to this point the consolidation in the major indexes and leading stocks has been completely acceptable, with very little abnormal action. If we start to see some names crack meaningful support, we’ll knock our Market Monitor down a notch or two, but today we’ll keep it at a level 8, as the odds continue to favor this being a normal rest period that will give way to higher prices.

This week’s list has a handful of names that have recently got going despite the market’s shenanigans. Our Top Pick this week is from a beaten-down group that’s come to life, possibly signaling the start of a group move.

Volatility has resurfaced and stocks have pulled back a bit of late, though it’s still very much a bull market. We’ll see whether this week’s CPI print (Wednesday) and kickoff to second-quarter earnings season (Friday) reverses or accelerates the recent mini-selloff. In the meantime, we’re going outside the box this week to add more exposure to the improving cannabis sector in the form of a leveraged fund. It’s been a favorite of Cabot Cannabis Investor Chief Analyst Michael Brush in recent weeks, and with Congress back in session today, the timing could be perfect.

Not too much to report this week as we simply allow our August positions to erode in value, which as options premium sellers is a good thing. We enter earnings season this week, so I fully expect to add several positions to the portfolio over the coming weeks. We currently have six open position with the intent of getting up between eight and 10.

Okay, we are back at it after the holiday-shortened week.


The plan this week is to add another iron condor to the portfolio and potentially a bull put spread. Both positions, particularly the bull put spread, will help to balance out the deltas of our portfolio. Currently our open positions consist of two bear call spreads and as a result, the overall leaning is to the short side. While I’m not opposed to the slight bearish leaning, I would like to bring it back closer to a neutral state. Of course, if we manage to take off both of our bear call spreads for profits, which I think we all hope that will be the case, our current state of short deltas won’t be an issue.

The earnings doldrums are finally behind us as earnings season officially 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.

The market came under some pressure last week as the S&P 500 fell 1.16%, the Dow lost 2% and the Nasdaq declined by 1%. And while the market lost ground, I would note that it was a holiday-shortened week, and option volumes were down dramatically.

The market came under some pressure last week as the S&P 500 fell 1.16%, the Dow lost 2% and the Nasdaq declined by 1%. And while the market lost ground, I would note that it was a holiday-shortened week, and option volumes were down dramatically.

This month we’re digging into a recovering healthcare specialist that is both a self-help and an AI automation story.

After a few missteps in 2022, a significant acquisition and a new management team have the stock on the right track again.

Moreover, high healthcare utilization and a rapid acceleration in the company’s automation capabilities suggest strong revenue and profit margin growth throughout 2023 and into 2024. Enjoy!

It’s happened. The market’s flirtation with the bear market precipice is over. It’s now a full-blown tawdry affair. The S&P 500 officially crossed into a bear market at Monday’s close (down 20% or more from the high on a closing basis).

That means the bull market that began in March of 2020 has ended after 2 years and 3 months. The culprit is inflation, and the Fed’s likely reaction to it. It had been hoped that inflation was peaking and would recede all by itself without the Fed having to be as aggressive as feared. But those hopes were dashed when May inflation came in at a worse-than-expected 8.6%, the highest yet and the worst in more than forty years.

The bull market lasted from March 2020 to June 13, 2022.


But now, we are officially in a bear market.

After the sharp selloff yesterday, the S&P 500 officially fell into bear market territory, down 20% or more from the high on a closing basis.
That means the bull market that began in March of 2020 has officially ended. The previous bull market lasted 11 years. This one lasted just under two years and three months. The culprit is inflation.

The speed and magnitude of changes in securities prices in the past 5½ months has been breathtaking. A quick recap: S&P500 down 20%, Nasdaq Composite down 31%, dozens of former mega-cap, hyper-growth tech stocks down 75%, investment-grade corporate bond prices down 16%, crude oil up 62% and the U.S. dollar index up 9%.

The Federal Reserve will meet on June 15, where it is expected they will raise interest rates by half of a percentage point for a consecutive time.

Rate hikes historically are seen as a way to fight inflation, as May consumer prices rose 8.6% y/y. This number was slightly higher than expected, resulting in price declines across global markets.

This week’s Friday Update includes comments on our companies. There were no ratings changes or earnings reports.

The major indexes are down modestly today after the European Central Bank laid out a plan to tighten policy. As of 215 pm, the Dow was down 157 points and the Nasdaq was off 129 points.

After trading as low as 1139 on May 12 the S&P 600 Small Cap Index has staged a modest recovery, crossing back above the January and February lows of around 1230 two weeks ago.

There’s reason to be heartened this week, as the market and Greentech continue to improve, extending on the hints of a turnaround we discussed in our issue last week. In fact, Greentech is looking better than the broader market right now, as it sits over the 20-day and 40-day moving averages (the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Tech 100 are below their 40-day) and we’re seeing Greentech’s 40-day line start to make a turn higher.

Things are looking better. The market stopped going down. Now it’s going sideways. That’s better.

Stocks have moved above the bear market precipice as investors have apparently priced in the fact that inflation will be persistent and the Fed will have to raise rates aggressively this year. That’s a major bummer to factor in. The market appears to have absorbed that shock, at least for now.

Our weekly note usually follows the theme of “what’s on our minds.” The topics range from discussions about individual stocks to the overall market to inflation and other matters. We usually have a lot on our minds, so it’s mostly a matter of picking one.

Earnings estimates have been boosted by 13 analysts for this automaker.

This medical diagnostics company has a habit of being underestimated by Wall Street. The company beat earnings estimates by $0.58 in the last quarter.

This energy company is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 56.96% over the next five years. Its current annual dividend yield is 1.89%, paid quarterly.

The earnings of this biotech company are forecasted to grow by 49.3% next year.

This financial services company reported record revenue, net income, and earnings per share for the first nine months of the year.

Our warrants for LiCycle (LICY.WS) are being redeemed by the company.

This software company just posted a 43% increase in quarterly revenue, and Jim Cramer has recently recommended it.

Last Friday the Goodyear Tire (GT) December 23 call that we sold in late November for $1.17 expired worthless, leaving us with a stock position, and without a new call sale.

Aluminum prices have risen almost 8% in the past week as the global supply situation continues to tighten.

In the past 30 days, 20 analysts have raised their EPS targets on this tech stock.

Aspen Aerogels (ASPN) triggered our sell-stop. Let’s take our profits and sell today.

Although this mining company falls into the category of speculative stocks, analysts expect the company’s earnings to grow at an annual rate of 20% over the next five years.

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.