The market had many ups and downs last week, and despite a nasty sell-off on Thursday the indexes closed the week mostly higher. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, the Dow lost 0.45%, and the Nasdaq rose by 2.26%.

The S&P 500 is right where it was roughly two weeks ago.

The lack of movement has been wonderful for our most recent SPY iron condor, our only open position at the moment. With 53 days left until the October 20 expiration cycle ends, my goal this week is to open two new positions, preferably a bull call spread and bull put spread. We’ve mostly been sitting on the sidelines while implied volatility, as seen through the VIX, traded well below 15. But after the fairly short reprieve, August has thankfully brought new life back into volatility. Of course, we would prefer to see the volatility index kick up to at least 17, if not higher, and plant itself there for a while.

Earnings season is nearing an end once again, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few opportunities left on the table.

This week we have a few interesting opportunities, with the most intriguing being Lululemon (LULU). The majority of the other potential trades, while having decent options liquidity, are just too volatile for my liking. Again, even though it has been a slow earnings cycle for trading, it doesn’t mean we should force a trade. Remember, trading is always about quality over quantity.

The market remains in a correction, though we’re fairly encouraged by this week’s bounce in growth titles, which corresponds with some souring sentiment and many big-picture positives. That’s good to see--but there’s been nothing decisive on the upside, so we remain cautious and flexible, holding plenty of cash and patiently waiting for the major uptrend to resume. We do have one new small buy tonight, but that will still leave us with around half the portfolio in cash.

In tonight’s issue, we write about the short- and long-term view of interest rates, and spend a good amount of space highlighting some names that could be ready to run when the market kicks into gear--including a bigger watch list with a couple of new names.

Warren Buffett became the world’s most famous investor in part by investing in companies with strong economic “moats.” Today, we add a well-known company that fits that description. We also say goodbye to two stocks to make room for more reliable opportunities as the market teeters.

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.

This market has confounded a lot of people over the past few years. Individual market sectors have been as perplexing as the indexes. Last year, the worst performing market sector by far was technology. This year it is by far the best performing sector. Last year, energy was the best performing sector. In the first half of this year, it was the worst performing.

Other sectors like consumer discretionary stocks that had been among the worst sectors last year are among the best this year. Defensive sectors including health care and utilities that delivered stellar returns last year have been dogs this year. In fact, the utility sector has displaced energy as this year’s worst performing S&P 500 sector.

The last few years have also illustrated a tendency for downtrodden stock sectors to rise from the canvas and become among the market’s best performers. Many utility stocks are currently near multi-year lows. But not because of the operational performance of the companies, which has largely remained solid. It’s mostly because of high interest rates, which may be peaking, and the mood of investors so far this year, which always changes.

Utilities are dirt cheap in an expensive market. They are also stellar relative performers in a slowing economy. But they are likely to rise from the current dark depths even if the economy remains buoyant. In this issue, I highlight one of the best performing utility stocks over the past 10 years that is currently selling near a multi-year low in a changing market.

Buying great stocks cheap is never a bad strategy over time.

I also highlight a fantastic covered call opportunity in a stock that has been on fire over the past couple of months. It’s a great chance to keep the income rolling in.

From its July high to last Friday’s low, the Nasdaq pulled back almost nearly 9%, which is generally in line with some other “first corrections” in bull moves we’ve seen in the past, and the bounce since then is a good first step. That said, there’s still much more to prove here: At this point, all of the major indexes we track are below their 50-day lines, leadership-type stocks have been hit hard and interest rates remain an issue. Ideally the market begins to get back in gear right quick, but we need to see more than a couple of up days to conclude that. We’ll pull our Market Monitor down to a level 5 while remaining flexible for whatever comes.

This week’s list is a mixed bag, with something for everyone. Our Top Pick is a tech name that’s always had good numbers, and after many starts-and-stops this year, appears as though it’s finally changing character.

Dog days of August, indeed! The market’s late-summer swoon continues, but that doesn’t mean the bull market party is already over; the power simply went out and we’re waiting for the generators to bring it surging back to life. In the meantime, opportunities to buy good companies at discounted prices abound. With that in mind, today we add a former market darling that fell on very hard times in 2021 and 2022 but is having a solid 2023, with even better growth likely to return in 2024 as the Fed is poised to (likely) cut sky-high interest rates next year. It’s a new addition from Cabot Early Opportunities Chief Analyst Tyler Laundon.

Earnings season is nearing an end once again, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few opportunities left on the table.


This week we have a few interesting opportunities, with the most intriguing being Lowe’s (LOW). The majority of the other potential trades, while having decent options liquidity, are just too volatile for my liking. Again, even though it has been a slow earnings cycle for trading, it doesn’t mean we should force a trade. Remember, trading is always about quality over quantity.

The return of volatility helped us to sell an iron condor this past week for a nice, wide range and decent options premium. Our hope is that we can continue to sell more options premium at even higher levels. The October expiration cycle is 60 days away so now is a great time to enter a few additional positions with the intent of getting out of the trade well before the 60 days are up. Remember, as we discussed on our last subscriber-only call, our average hold time per trade is only 20.6 days, even though we enter trades with roughly 30 to 60 days left until expiration. My goal over the next week or two is to ramp up our open positions to at least three open trades, potentially more, but, as always, Mr. Market will dictate how many we trades are able to get off.

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.

This note includes our review of earnings from Adient (ADNT), Conduent (CNDT), Gannett (GCI), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD), Kaman Corporation (KAMN), Molson Coors (TAP), Organon & Co. (OGN), Vodafone (VOD), Western Digital (WDC) and Western Union (WU). Next week the deluge tapers with six companies reporting.

There were no ratings or price target changes this week.

The major indexes continue to act well in the wake of our Cabot Tides buy signal, which is clearly a good thing. That said, the vast majority of action remains in stocks that are buried on their charts, while those that acted resilient in recent months are mostly just sitting around.

This market is having quite a rally. The S&P 500 just had one of the best months ever in July, up 9.1% for the month, and is currently up more than 12% from the June low. Will the good times last?

Investors are sniffing an end game to the misery of ever-rising inflation and an ultra-hawkish Fed that has been dogging the market all year. The market tends to anticipate six months or so into the future. By then, it sees inflation under control and a Fed that is done hiking rates and maybe even talking about easing again.

This was a quiet week, and so I’m going to use my introduction to share an update on Cogstate (COGZF), which reported preliminary fiscal 2022 results.

What a July! The S&P 500 moved 9.1% higher for the month, making it the best month since the first pandemic recovery month in 2020. It also closed up 12.6% from the low in June.
Is this a bear market rally or the beginning of something beautiful?

Cryptocurrency markets are rebounding significantly, led by our investments in Ethereum (ETH) and ETH-based projects.

Both Polygon (MATIC) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are performing very well.

After a stellar performance in 2020 and a so-so 2021, gold has been one of this year’s biggest disappointments. After a promising rally in the first quarter, gold fell 17% from its March peak of $2,050 an ounce to $1,700 just two weeks ago.

But the decline looks like it may have finally ended in a classic “washout” with small investors running away while market-moving commercial players have lately jumped in as buyers—potentially good news from a contrarian perspective.

This note includes our review of earnings from Dril-Quip (DRQ), General Electric (GE), Holcim (HCMLY), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), Lamb Weston Holdings (LW), M/I Homes (MHO), Newell Brands (NWL), Polaris (PII), Shell plc (SHEL) and Xerox Holdings (XRX).

There were no ratings or price target changes this week.

With this morning’s first read of Q2 GDP coming in at -0.9% and marking the second consecutive quarter of negative growth (Q1 GDP was -1.6%), many are claiming (or soon will claim) the U.S. is in a recession.

As expected, America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75% for the second straight meeting in an effort to beat down inflation that’s been running at a four-decade high.

In the past 30 days, five analysts have boosted their EPS forecasts for this skilled nursing facility owner.

As you are aware from the prior issue and the last update, the Undiscovered Portfolio is tactical in nature, meaning that we’ll be buying and selling funds on a fairly regular basis, as market conditions change.

Our new recommendation is a bus/heavy duty truck transmission company that has a current annual dividend yield of 1.95%, paid quarterly. We are also selling three previous ideas.

This insurance company beat analysts’ earnings estimates by $0.49 last quarter, and six analysts have recently boosted their EPS forecasts for the company.

Inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising rates are pushing up commodity stocks this this miner.

The top five holdings in this ETF are: Invesco Shrt-Trm Inv Gov&Agcy Instl (AGPXX, 24.11% of net assets); Coffee C Future Sept 21 (KCU21, 7.43%); Corn Sept21 (CU1, 6.82%); Sugar No. 11 Futures Sept21 (SBV1, 6.71%); and Soybean Nov21 (SX1, 6.66%).

Today we are raising our price target on Arcos Dorados (ARCO) from 7.50 to 8.50. The company is recovering from the pandemic and looks well-positioned to expand its franchise and profits while continuing to improve its balance sheet. The shares remain undervalued.

Sprout Social (SPT) reported a terrific Q4 yesterday and offered above-consensus guidance for 2022. Despite the good results and outlook, we’re going to sell another one-quarter position to take our stake down to one half today. The bottom line is it continues to be a challenging environment for pure growth stocks, and we need to continue to adapt to the times.

This asset management company earned $0.58 per share last quarter, handily beating analysts’ estimates of $0.49. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 7.87%, paid quarterly.

Today, the Undiscovered Portfolio sold three ETFs for the following reasons.

Cloudflare (NET) reported Q4 results yesterday that surpassed expectations. Revenue was up 54% to $193.6 million while adjusted EPS came in at $0.01. As compared to some other software stocks that have beat expectations, Cloudflare reinvested the surplus cash in growth initiatives, so it didn’t flow to the bottom line.

Our first idea, a cloud security company, is set to report earnings today. Analysts are expecting EPS of $0.11 on revenues of $241.56 million. Our second recommendation is a short-sale of a company whose shares are on a downward slide.

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.