Are promises made really promises kept, for President Donald Trump?

No one really knows, so cannabis equity investors remain depressed.

They can’t get any bullish signals from the administration on rescheduling, which Trump promised.

But there is a way to deal with this uncertainty as a cannabis investor. Shift your focus to getting paid to wait. I’ll explain why, and how, below.

At face value, it’s admittedly a challenge to build a bullish case for the long-term viability of satellite radio. Indeed, as the popularity and reach of digital streaming platforms grow, satellite as a communications medium looks antiquated by comparison.

That said, a case can also be made that reports of satellite radio’s demise are decidedly premature. When researching for this month’s issue of CTL, for instance, I came across an article under the following headline: “Satellite Radio is Dead.” It went on to explain, “Satellite radio will come crashing down to Earth within the next two years. The newly merged Sirius XM Radio is already living on borrowed time—and borrowed money—and simply will not and cannot survive.”

The market is sputtering. While the S&P is still up slightly for the year, it’s at the same level it was three months ago.

After two glorious years of being up over 20%, stocks may be expensive and due for consolidation. While that’s certainly possible, it’s normal and healthy in a bull market. And stocks may not be as expensive as they seem.

This bull market has been driven higher by technology and the artificial intelligence catalyst. Without a handful of large technology companies, the bull market returns so far would be quite lame. But things are changing. There are good reasons to believe the relative returns of the rest of the market should vastly improve.

The rally has broadened out. Other stocks are picking up the slack while technology is wobbling. The grossly lopsided performance couldn’t last. And there’s more to the story than just sector rotation. Earnings are catching up.

The energy sector in particular is likely to benefit from the shared bounty going forward.

There are powerful reasons to believe certain energy stocks will benefit from increasing natural gas demand, more oil and gas drilling, and friendlier regulations. Some of these stocks have pulled back from the highs and offer an attractive entry point. In this issue, I highlight two energy stocks that are likely in a multi-year bull market that historically generate high call premiums.

Before we dive into this week’s idea, we need to clean up our February positions that expired on Friday. First off, both our NET and HOOD positions closed for their full profits.

However, RBRK and GH stocks closed below their strike prices, which means the calls we sold expired worthless, and we are left with the stock positions, which we are going to sell today.

While there have been some encouraging signs here and there, the market never could quite kick into gear during the past two months, which didn’t necessarily portend doom but is why we never turned very bullish in recent weeks—and now we’ve seen a sudden rug pull, as leaders have hit air pockets. Now, to this point, the selling has been mostly seen in the growth arena, so there are still many names that are handling themselves just fine. We’re open to this being the final shakeout to a two-month-long grinding period, but as always we’re taking the evidence as it comes: We’ll yank our Market Monitor down to a level 5, though a lot of it comes down to entry points and what stocks you own.

This week’s list is a hodgepodge of names, with some growth, some turnaround and a few others sprinkled in. Our Top Pick is a great short- and long-term growth story that acts well and could be ready to help lead if the market can turn back up.

After weeks of withstanding a geyser of negative headlines – higher inflation, tariffs, slower interest rate cuts, the DeepSeek impact on AI, etc. – the market finally took on water last Thursday and Friday. Whether that’s the start of a deeper correction, we’ll likely know in the next few days. Even if it is, it’s nothing abnormal. After all, the S&P just touched new all-time highs three trading days ago. A pullback was probably inevitable.

Out of respect for the about-face in U.S. stocks in recent days, however, today we’ll turn our attention to Europe, where stocks have been outperforming their U.S. counterparts by more than 2-to-1 so far this year. Our new addition comes from Spain and is a company that’s been in Carl Delfeld’s Cabot Explorer portfolio for several months.

Details inside.

After notching an all-time high earlier in the week, the S&P 500 and its index peers came under intense selling pressure to close the week. By week’s end, the S&P 500 fell by 1.7%, while the Dow and Nasdaq both lost 2.5%.

After notching an all-time high earlier in the week, the S&P 500 and its index peers came under intense selling pressure to close the week. By week’s end, the S&P 500 fell by 1.7%, while the Dow and Nasdaq both lost 2.5%.

The market remains relatively mixed from a top-down perspective, but growth stocks remain a different story -- some still look fine, but the action is very hit or miss, and recently, more have come under pressure, with air pockets appearing all over the place this week. That doesn’t portend doom -- in fact, some things like sentiment are encouraging, and the indexes aren’t in bad shape -- but we’ve pared back this week and will look to reinvest the proceeds once big investors decisively step up to support growth stocks.

The February 2025 Issue highlights a variety of both new and familiar names across the software, delivery, MedTech, appliance and land management markets.

As always, this Issue should have something for everyone.

Despite early-week wobbles on inflation worries, the market again held its ground and in fact advanced as the week wore on. By week’s end the S&P 500 had gained 1.5%, the Dow had risen by 0.5%, and the Nasdaq had added 2.6%.

Most of the overall evidence out there is the same as it has been for weeks, but there is one factor that is very encouraging for the bulls: Earnings season, which continues to produce a good-sized batch of gaps higher in growthy names, with another round of winners this past week; as things stand now, there should be plenty of leadership for the market to ride ... if big investors finally click the buy button. We’re far from flooring the accelerator, but we’ll nudge up our Market Monitor to a level 7.

As an example of what we just wrote, seven of this week’s Top Ten gapped on earnings last week, and while some still need a little work, all should have good potential if the market kicks into gear. Our Top Pick has reemerged after a long base-building effort last year and as some industry worries fade into the background.

After a couple of tough weeks, maybe due to a lingering yen carry-trade impact and a little too much concern over a weakening economy, the market has acted much better the last couple of days.

It seems we’re in one of those periods where there isn’t a major market catalyst, even though we’re getting inflation reports, presidential debates and a Fed meeting. So the market is just bouncing around.

The Magnificent Seven have run into a brick wall in the second half of 2024.

After carrying the market in the first half of the year, and through much of 2023, the seven largest mega-cap tech stocks – Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) – have all seen the air let out of their balloons in the last two and a half months, or longer in some cases. On average, those seven stocks, which comprise roughly 30% of the S&P 500, are down 3.7% since the beginning of July. Not coincidentally, the S&P 500 as a whole is flat, after being up about 15% in the first six months of the year, during which six of the Mag. 7 (TSLA was down) performed even better.

Back on August 28 and September 3, I suggested buying cannabis stocks in the severe weakness that put a lot of cannabis investors in a deeply distressed state. I cited the excessive negativity and the potential for a bullish update from presidential candidate Donald Trump on his cannabis policy.

On September 9 we got the Trump update, and it was very bullish for the sector. Cannabis stocks moved up sharply.

That wasn’t a good start to September. The holiday-shortened week was the worst week for the market in two years as recession fears reemerged. Here are the results from last week.

In today’s note, we discuss the recent news developments concerning Nokia (NOK), Tyson Foods (TSN), Baxter International (BAX), Gannett (GCI), and Alibaba Holdings (BABA). We also discuss the latest nationwide headline development that could have a material impact on AMMO Inc. (POWW).

This was a rather tough week for stocks though the financial media always goes overboard calling a 2% drop in the Nasdaq index a “plummet.”

For many analysts, copper prices have long been considered a better leading indicator regarding the health of the global economy. Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs has exited a long-term bullish position on copper while slashing its price forecast for 2025 by almost $5,000 a ton. The bank has been one of the biggest supporters of the industrial strategic metal, but the increasingly weak Chinese economy has crimped demand, plus excess inventories overhang supply resulting in copper prices being down almost 20% since May.

Welcome to the post-Labor Day market. A sobered-up investor can be an ornery investor.

Stocks kicked off the first trading day after Labor Day on a decidedly negative note. The August manufacturing number was still somewhat weak, but all eyes are on the August jobs number that comes out Friday. It was the weak July jobs number that prompted recession fears and the market selloff in early August. Another bad number could reignite recession worries that had faded in the second part of August.

It’s the post-Labor Day market. Investors tend to start paying attention again after the summer. This refocus prompted one of the worst selloffs this year.

Investors were positive about things in the middle of August before they went on vacation and stopped paying attention. The market rode out the rest of the month in the same form. But investors coming back to real life after the summer realized that there might be more to worry about.

In today’s note, we discuss the recent earnings reports from Foot Locker (FL), along with our decision to completely exit our position in the stock and take profits. We also discuss the latest addition to the portfolio in the form of Zillow (Z).

WHAT TO DO NOW: We think the strong action from the mini-panic low in early August is a good sign the next big move is up—but the timing of that move is less certain, possibly getting going soon, but it could also take more time to set up. Our market timing indicators are improving, and so we’ll do a little more buying tonight, but we’re OK going slow here to see how the rally progresses from here. In the Model Portfolio, we’re adding a half-sized stake in Shift4 Payments (FOUR) and putting On Holding (ONON) back on Buy—though we’re also holding on to a cash position of around 32% and want to see further upside soon before putting more cash to work.

The S&P 600 Small Cap ETF (IJR) closed out last week on a high note as the index rallied 3.4% on Friday following comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell in Jackson Hole that confirmed what investors were expecting, that an interest rate cut in September is likely.

Small caps have chopped around this week, inching a little lower but not making any dramatic moves.

The market is now pricing in a roughly 35% probability of a 50-bp rate cut next month, and just over 100 bp of easing by the end of this year.

It is a late-summer/early-fall rite of passage on Wall Street: After Labor Day, the institutional investors and hedge fund types return from their summer vacation homes in the Hamptons and immediately start selling. They sell out of their weakest positions that have been neglected and left to rot during the summer months, in the hopes of beefing up their quarterly returns before October brings a new quarter. The result is that September is, far and away, the worst month for stocks, with an average decline of -1.17% in the S&P 500 dating all the way back to 1928. The next-worst month is February, with a mere -0.14% decline.

That’s the bad news as we enter September. Here’s the good news.

Cannabis stocks rallied hard Monday, particularly after the close when we learned that the Florida Supreme Court approved a referendum on legalizing the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Florida already permits medical use, but the change would expand the size of the Florida cannabis market significantly, especially considering Florida’s large tourist industry.

Sell Varonis (VRNS)

Just a quick heads up, I’ll be adding several new positions early next week. We currently have four positions in the portfolio and my immediate goal is to get back up to between six and eight positions using our ladder-based approach for consistent, weekly income.

Dogs of the Dow Portfolio (DOW), Buffett’s Patient Investor Portfolio Alert (GOOGL)

After a surprising gap higher, MMM has continued to follow through with its recent trend higher, with nary a pullback. As a result, we need to buy back our calls and once again extend our deltas back into positive territory.

I’m adding another new bear call spread to the mix and intend on adding several more trades over the coming days.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The market and especially leading stocks are still very choppy, with news-driven moves becoming the norm of late, and today we’re seeing another wave of selling in the names. Big picture, we’re still optimistic, but we’re taking things on a stock-by-stock basis at this point. Today we’re going to sell Shift4 (FOUR), which was hit hard yesterday after saying it received no worthwhile buyout bids and, without any bounce, we’re going to cut bait here, leaving us with 32% in cash. Details below.

I want to lock in a return and look to sell more put premium in XLU over the next few trading days. By locking in a return in XLU, our total returns for Income Trader will exceed 160% for the first time since inception.

Shares of Elastic (ESTC) continue to struggle in the weeks after reporting earnings. We sold part of our position on March 5 for a 30% gain, and we’ll sell the rest today for a roughly 22% gain. SELL REMAINING SHARES

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.

Shares of Cadre (CDRE) were down almost 10% yesterday on news of a secondary offering, which will be priced at 35, roughly the level of yesterday’s closing price. It’s not atypical for a stock like this to absorb a secondary over a week (roughly) then resume its upward march. Additionally, with part of CDRE’s growth strategy revolving around M&A, it’s not too surprising that they would seek to raise capital and do so with equity (strong stock) rather than debt (high cost). Maintaining Buy rating as this offering doesn’t change the big-picture story. BUY

Dogs of the Dow Portfolio Alert (VZ, AMGN), Buffett’s Patient Investor Portfolio Alert (GOOGL)

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.