The back-and-forth between the US and China rattled markets early this week as our emerging market signal turned negative. But stocks have bounced back with investors taking advantage of some emerging market bargains. Nevertheless, our portfolio is in a conservative posture with sizable cash allocation. We put some of this to work in a high quality idea from the land of the rising sun.

After reaching record highs this past month, volatility set in and we had a few days of losses following the Fed meeting, as well as Trump’s latest Chinese tariff action. But yesterday, markets calmed, regaining some of their losses. Advisor and consumer sentiment remain very bullish, as you’ll see in our Advisor Sentiment Barometer and Market Views.

Since we’re in the midst of a sudden stock market correction, I decided to feature three stocks today that seem to offer the best opportunities while their prices are temporarily low.

Be brave! If you saved up portfolio cash with which to buy low at moments like this, now is the time to buy something! You don’t have to spend it all in one day, of course.

If you are new at buying low during stock market corrections, and you’re feeling excited and scared and tentative and unconfident, send me an email. You’re going to be okay, and I’d love to hear about your experience. Learning to buy low is an important step toward increasing your future stock portfolio success.

The broad market has now begun a well-needed correction, which is likely to go on at least a little longer, and our job is to adjust our portfolio, on a continuing basis, so that we are always invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks that fit your investment needs.

This week that means selling three stocks. But it also means that there are buying opportunities in some of our stocks.

As for the new recommendation, I’m leaning conservative once again, with a low-risk petroleum infrastructure stock that has great recurring business and is decently valued as well.

Note: Because of the Cabot Investors Summit, which will bring all the Cabot analysts together in Salem late next week, the next issue of Cabot Stock of the Week will come out a day early next week, on Monday.

Current Market Outlook


The market had become vulnerable to a short-term pullback in recent weeks, and now the normal post-Fed wobbles have turned into an abnormal selloff after the new round of Chinese tariffs, with today’s market plunge decisively cracking the intermediate-term uptrends of the major indexes and many leading stocks. Bigger picture, this is still a bull market until proven otherwise, but after some huge runs, many stocks that have been running for months likely need time to repair the damage. Interestingly, the fresher stocks (those that got going in May, June and July) are mostly hanging in there, and we’re not opposed to nibbling on them if you have some cash on the sideline. But at this point, your focus should be more on preserving capital (honoring stops, holding cash, cutting back on new buying) and waiting for bottoms to be formed. Our Market Monitor is back down to a level 4.
This week’s list is full of those fresher names, if you feel like taking a stab at a name or two. Our Top Pick is Inphi (IPHI), a high-potential stock that’s holding up well after earnings.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM)	79.05	53-55.5	48.5-49.5
Anaplan (PLAN)	47.52	51-53.5	46-48
Casey’s General Store (CASY)	165.73	159-162	147-149
Inphi (IPHI)	120.16	59-61	51.5-52.5
MasTec, Inc. (MTZ)	66.65	55.5-58	50.5-52
PagSeguro Digital (PAGS)	35.09	41.5-43.5	37.5-38.5
Pinterest (PINS)	35.86	32-34	28-29
SunPower (SPWR)	12.26	12.4-13.4	10.7-11.2
Survey Monkey (SVMK)	19.97	17.5-18.5	15.8-16.4
Twitter (TWTR)	40.37	39-41	36-37

Today’s recommendation is a software and infrastructure company specializing in communications. It just reported Wednesday night, and results were better than expected, which is great for two reasons.
First, the latest numbers support my thesis that this company has what it takes to grow over the long haul.
And second, we don’t need to stress about the company reporting right after we buy in! We have the latest data. And it looks good.
All the details are inside this month’s Issue.

In the last issue we thought growth stocks could easily have a few hiccups, and that’s generally what we’ve seen, with many well-known, extended titles hitting some turbulence. And, looking at the entire market, it lost some steam over the past three weeks, with the news-driven selling of the past two days doing some damage.

Bigger picture, our views haven’t changed at all -- this is a bull market that’s likely to move meaningfully higher in the months ahead. We remain heavily invested (88% in the Model Portfolio), but we’re watching things closely to see if this is more of a shakeout or the start of a sustained selling wave.

In tonight’s issue we write about one sector that appears to be breaking free of very long launching pad, with most components doing the same. (Our favorite name in the sector reports earnings tonight.) And we also run through all of our stocks, sharing our thoughts on many of them pre- and post-earnings.

By their nature, turnaround stocks involve a fair amount of risk. One way to help reduce that risk is to find out-of-favor stocks that offer high dividend yields. This puts hard cash in your pocket while you wait for the turnaround to take effect.

In this issue, we list six additional out-of-favor stocks that have high dividend yields which we believe are sustainable and also have turnaround potential:

The markets keep sailing along, although at a slower pace. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 400 points since the last issue. The economy remains strong, with both new home and pending house sales rising. Unemployment continues to decline. Overall, a nice, sound economy.

And as you’ll see in our Market Views section, our contributors continue to be bullish.

After a fantastic showing for our 2019 Top Picks last month, our contributors are continuing to find some great stocks with big potential for you.

The market continues to slowly slog higher in the dog days of the summer. It’s a time of year when investors are more focused on squeezing more fun out of the last days of the summer than investing. Markets seem to behave the same way they did when investors stopped paying attention. In this case it likely means a higher crawl until Labor Day.
Of course, an outside event can always change things. We’ll see what happens with today’s Fed rate decision. But unless something rocks the boat, markets will probably remain on autopilot for the next month or so.

After two near-record-setting months, stocks are encountering their first real turbulence since March. It’s no surprise.

While stocks go up an average of 10% a year, they rarely do so in a straight line. And after the S&P 500 rallied nearly 20% in April and May and the Nasdaq shot up nearly 30%, a pullback of some kind – or possibly even a true correction – was to be expected. It seems it’s happening all at once.

Stocks look to enter summer near all-time highs, but leadership has narrowed and volatility has ticked up thanks to renewed scrutiny on the AI trade and open-ended questions about valuations in some of the hottest areas of the market.

There’s also been more focus on the evolving macro landscape, which features a resilient U.S. economy but stubbornly high energy prices due to the ongoing Iran conflict, and somewhat elevated yields. We’re now looking at a higher likelihood of a Fed rate hike, with the odds of a hike by December now well over 50%.

The high-flying AI stocks got crushed on Friday. But those stocks started this week higher. Where do we go from here?

The technology-heavy Nasdaq index fell 4% on Friday, and the S&P 500 fell for the week for the first time in 10 weeks. A couple of things spooked investors. The AI trade turned sour after Broadcom (AVGO) reported earnings that included slightly lower revenue projections for its AI chips than were expected. Also, a blowout jobs report strengthened the case for a Fed rate hike by the end of the year.

A major economic narrative that took shape in recent years was the decline and (presumptive) inevitable death of the so-called “petrodollar,” as a growing number of countries diversified their foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. dollar and toward gold and alternative currencies like the Chinese yuan.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The overall market remains in good shape, though we are seeing some exuberance on the upside and also a few leaders begin to act sloppy. Near term, then, it’s still a coin flip as to what comes, but the vast majority of intermediate-term evidence remains bullish. In the Model Portfolio, we took partial profits in Marvell (MRVL) earlier this week; tonight, we’re buying a half-sized position (5% of the account) in Bloom Energy (BE), which is extremely volatile but also strong and coming off a few weeks of rest. Our cash position will now be around 28%.

This market just keeps going higher.

Sure, there’s uncertainty out there. The war isn’t over. Inflation and interest rates are still too high. But stocks didn’t get the memo. After a strong April, the S&P 500 rose 5% and the Nasdaq soared 8% in May. The indexes are up 20% and 30%, respectively, since March 30 and are continuing to make new highs this week.

Despite the negative headlines and volatility, stocks just keep going.

After a strong April, the S&P 500 rose 5% and the Nasdaq soared 8% in May. The indexes are up 20% and 30%, respectively, since March 30. It’s also worth noting that despite the ongoing Iran war, the price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed down 17% for the month of May.

This week’s Memorial Day observance marked the traditional onset of the summer vacation season for millions of Americans. It’s a time of traveling, sightseeing, picnics and parties. It’s also the peak season for enjoying cold, carbonated beverages like soda pop and energy drinks.

With this dynamic in play, I think it’s time that we give some attention to our holding in PepsiCo (PEP), which is entering a critical period of its sales year.

On the heels of a miserable March and a euphoric April, I wrote several weeks ago in this space that I thought May would determine which direction the market is truly headed, at least in the intermediate term. We have our answer, and it’s a definitive “up.”

All three major U.S. indexes are touching record highs as of this writing, with the S&P 500 up 4.3% in May, the Nasdaq up 7%, and the slower-moving Dow Jones Industrial inching higher by 1.6%. That’s despite the ongoing Iran war and the accompanying sky-high oil and gas prices, escalating inflation, bond yields at multi-year highs, possible Fed rate hikes later this year, and record-low consumer sentiment.

Stocks have largely shrugged off this week’s dust‑ups in the Middle East as investors continue to bet on a near‑term memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and push bigger sticking points between the U.S. and Iran down the road.

Yields have cooled off this week and continue to do so this morning, thanks to a slightly lower‑than‑expected core PCE reading. April core PCE rose 0.2% month over month, below both March’s 0.3% reading and consensus, giving the Fed some breathing room as policymakers weigh the competing forces of inflation and growth.

The $145 trillion global bond market is under some stress due to runaway debt. The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yielded over 5% last week, up from 4.63% at the end of February. Americans are struggling to keep up with their debt payments, as the cost of borrowing money increases. This is a global story. In Japan, the 30-year government bond yield just hit a record of 4.15%, and U.K. government debt jumped to 5.85% earlier this month.

Nothing stops this market. The S&P 500 hit another new high this week.

The spectacular earnings season helped power the rally. Average earnings growth on the S&P 500 is over 28% in the first quarter. That is far better than the expected 13.1% and the highest level of growth for any quarter since 2021.

This software provider’s earnings estimates were just raised by 16 analysts.

Cronos Group is expected to be elevated today from the Nasdaq International Designation program (where it has traded as PRMCF) to the Nasdaq Global Market, where it will trade under the ticker symbol CRON. In Canada, it will continue to trade under the symbol MJM.

The recent rally has been enough to turn our Cabot Tides positive, as three of the five indexes we track are clearly above their 50-day lines. That’s certainly a positive and tells us to put some money back to work.

This Chinese retailer’s shares were recently upgraded by HSBC, to ‘Buy’ and Bernstein, to ‘Outperform’.

Seven analysts have increased their EPS forecasts for this infrastructure company in the past 30 days.

Two of our stocks reported earnings yesterday.

This $100 or so stock just announced a special dividend of $5—great return on investment for shareholders of record as of February 27.

Analysts expect this real estate marketing company to grow at a rate of more than 58% this year and 45% in 2019. Two companies have recently upgraded the shares: KeyBanc and Morgan Stanley, both to ‘Overweight’.

To be safe, I’m moving one of our stocks to Hold today after it dipped yesterday.

Coverage of the shares of this oil and natural gas company were just initiate by several brokerages: Deutsche Bank, to ‘Buy’; Baird, to ‘Outperform’; and Credit Suisse, to ‘Outperform’.

Our first idea is a retailer with a lot of momentum and 10 analysts who have recently raised their EPS forecasts.

Our second recommendation is profit-taking on a recent pick.

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.