The buyers finally stepped up after a brutal first three weeks of April, and suddenly the bull market feels back on again. One week doesn’t make a rally – not if the Fed (which rears its ugly head again this week) has anything to say about it. But for now, the selling has ceased, with an assist from a better-than-expected earnings season. Today’s addition isn’t exciting – it specializes in things like pipes, valves and water meters – but it’s a practical – and potentially quite profitable – way to play America’s geyser of infrastructure spending. It was newly recommended by Mike Cintolo to his Cabot Top Ten Trader readers.

Tech stocks steadied a bit this week as quarterly earnings started coming in. Sea (SE) was up this week on two analyst upgrades. Super Micro (SMCI) will report crucial quarterly earnings early next week.

The Explorer’s one current European stock recommendation is Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NVO). It has passed French luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to become Europe’s most valuable company.

Cannabis stocks have fallen sharply since the beginning of April. The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis (MSOS) is down 15.4% since April 1. There are two reasons.

First, investor enthusiasm for stocks overall has waned, creating significant declines across indices. Because cannabis is perceived as a riskier sector, cannabis stocks decline more than most stocks when investors move into risk-off mode.

Second, many analysts and investors had hoped for visible progress on key catalysts by now – chiefly rescheduling and cannabis banking reform. They have been disappointed.

In twenty years of price forecasting, the most valuable lesson I have learned is that the rate of change tells us everything we need to know about the immediate future. When it accelerates, it tends to continue accelerating. When it decelerates, it tends to continue decelerating. And surprisingly, this tends to be the case no matter what metric we choose to examine.

The rally sputtered. And it’s all about interest rates.

Investors had been factoring in falling interest rates and a soft landing. But now, investors are increasingly expecting no landing and continued high rates. Recent strong economic numbers, along with higher-than-expected inflation, are changing the perception.

It looks like these high rates will stick around for a while. And most stocks don’t like high rates. But not all. There are some companies that actually thrive with higher interest rates. And that creates opportunity. In this issue, I highlight a stock that pays a massive dividend generated by these high interest rates. As income investors, we can reap the bounty.

Before we get into this week’s idea we need to clean up a couple of positions from April expiration last Friday. This is what we are going to do …

Sell FROG Stock
Sell HOOD Stock
Sell IOT Stock

Stepping back, we are closing our FROG and IOT positions for losses, while HOOD will be closed at its max profit.

With weeks of churning action and complacent sentiment, the market was flirting with trouble for a while, and now it’s hit the intermediate-term tripwire. Thus, we mostly advise defense here—after a big run-up and the aforementioned churning, the odds favor more short-term downside testing and/or pain ahead. That said, the odds also favor a resumption of the longer-term uptrend down the road, so it’s best not to get too holed up in your bunker, either. Tonight, we’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 6, and the main message is to hold a good chunk of cash, honor stops and be very selective on the buy side.

This week’s list is another broad mix of stocks, with something for everyone in terms of stories, sectors and setups. Our Top Pick is a reliable grower in the infrastructure area that’s pulling back toward support. Given the market, keep new buys on the small side.

It’s been a painful April for stocks, with the S&P 500 down more than 5% and many growth and small-cap stocks down much further. But in the grand scheme, some selling was to be expected after five straight months of gains. It’s still a bull market, and it’s not likely to up and fizzle after five months. Eventually, selling pressures will ease, and the market will bounce back. Until then, we have to ride out the storm. Today, we do that in several ways: selling two more of our laggards, downgrading two once-red-hot stocks that are in the midst of steep corrections, and adding a new stock from perhaps the one strong sector at the moment: gold miners. It’s a new addition from Tyler Laundon in Cabot Early Opportunities.

There is no sugar-coating it, the market, led by the Nasdaq which has fallen for six straight trading sessions, had a bad week. By week’s end, the S&P 500 fell 4%, the Dow lost 1%, and the Nasdaq dropped 6.2%.

There is no sugar-coating it, the market, led by the Nasdaq which has fallen for six straight trading sessions, had a bad week. By week’s end, the S&P 500 fell 4%, the Dow lost 1%, and the Nasdaq dropped 6.2%.

The market has definitively changed character, with our Cabot Tides and Two-Second Indicator now negative—when combined with breakdowns among leading growth stocks, the odds favor more short-term weakness ahead. We’ve been holding some cash for a while and have boosted that this week, with 37% on the sideline, and we could raise more if the selling continues.

That said, we’re not aiming to hide out in our bunkers--following some short-term pain, the odds favor further long-term gains given the underlying trend and the lack of big-picture abnormal action out there. Thus, having taken partial profits in many names, we’re OK giving them a chance to find support, as some are likely to have another leg up after this downturn. In tonight’s issue, we’re moving a couple more stocks to Hold, hanging onto our cash and writing about many names that are taking the selling in stride and could have upside if the market finds its footing.

In the April Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we take heed of the market’s recent volatility by digging into a wider-than-normal range of emerging opportunities.

We have gold mining, AI website development tools, healthy fast-casual dining and a few things in between!

As always, there should be something for everybody.

We include our comments on earnings from Macy’s (M) and Kohl’s (KSS). Duluth Holdings (DLTH) will report on August 31.

Earlier this week, due to circumstances beyond our control, we suspended our rating on shares of Kopin Corporation (KOPN). This means that the shares have no rating: They are not a Buy, Sell, Hold or any other rating, but are in essence unrated. We apologize for this unusual situation.

After three rough weeks in August, small caps have finally begun to stabilize around their 200-day moving average line.

I’d like to say blame for the weak performance rests fully on the shoulders of small-cap financials due to rising yields, commercial real estate mortgage default risk, etc.

But the truth is most sectors have been weak. Small-cap health care looks downright awful, with the Invesco S&P Small Cap Healthcare ETF (PSCH) hitting a new low for the year late last week.

Today August 23 will be my last day as the author of Cabot Micro-Cap Insider.

After a fabulous first seven months of 2023, stocks are pulling back so far in August. What can we expect from here?

A pullback or consolidation in the market at this point is normal and even healthy. And that’s what this will have been if the market gets back on track. There are also two potential catalysts to reignite the rally this week: Nvidia (NVDA) earnings and Jackson Hole.

It was the May Nvidia earnings report that triggered the artificial intelligence tech rally that added another leg to the bull market. Another positive earnings report could reinvigorate technology stocks after a rough August so far. The Fed will also deliver comments this week at the annual Jackson Hole thing. Dovish remarks would be positive for the market.

The capital markets are always interesting, and seemingly more so now. A lot of trends are coming together that could drive some late-year turbulence.

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is this year’s hot topic. Following a remarkably strong outlook last quarter, chipmaker and AI beneficiary Nvidia (NVDA) is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday. The company’s shares surged on Monday in advance of the report as speculators place bets for another blow-out report. Other Magnificent 7 tech stocks are riding the wave. If Nvidia’s revenues, earnings and guidance are uninspiring, tech stocks will have a rough year-end.

There were no earnings reports this week. Macy’s (M) is now scheduled to report earnings next Tuesday, August 22. Kohl’s (KSS) will report the following day, August 23. Duluth Holdings (DLTH) will report on August 31.

Today we are moving shares of four companies, Toshiba (TOSYY), Holcim AG (HCMLY), First Horizon (FHN) and ESAB Corporation (ESAB) from BUY to SELL.

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Welcome to this week’s Cabot Macro Investor update.

I’m joking. We’re still all about small-cap stocks. But now that earnings season is over it’s all about the macro again. So we’ve got to address it.

In the second half of July, I felt like we were due for a pullback.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain cautious. The selling is spreading out now, so much so that our Cabot Tides have flipped to a sell signal as the number of new lows picks up. The odds still favor this being a correction, not a massive new downtrend, but most stocks (and especially growth stocks) remain under the gun. Tonight, we’re forced to sell our small remaining position in Shift4 (FOUR), which we gave every chance to hold up but has decisive broken down. We’ll also place ProShares S&P 500 Fund (SSO) on Hold given the Tides signal, though we’re holding onto what we own. All told, our cash position will be around 55%.

Beginning on a positive note, I’d like to remind you of the power of compounding returns when you stay in the stock market over time. For example, $100 invested in three-month Treasury bills in 1928 grew to only $2,141 by the end of last year while it became $46,379 invested in medium-grade corporate bonds and a stunning $624,534 if invested in a broad basket of stocks, according to data from New York University finance professor Aswath Damodaran.

China’s continued economic woes took center stage globally this week, as the country’s central bank unexpectedly cut key interest rates in a bid to spur economic growth, manage high debt in the property sector, and lower its 20% youth unemployment rate. An index of Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong has fallen more than 9% this month.

Cabot Options Institute Income Trader is focused exclusively on the creating consistent income through a variety of options selling strategies. Whether you have questions about selling puts, covered strangles, jade lizards or our income wheel approach, Andy is more than happy to help you steepen your learning curve in this live event.

The rally is floundering in August.


A pullback of sorts isn’t unusual or unexpected, especially in the waning days of summer. Many investors are focused on squeezing in more summer before it slips away and they aren’t paying attention to the market.

PFE rallied over the past expiration cycle and as a result, our June 16, 2023, 40 calls were “called” away last week. We made 4.4% on the income trade. Per our Income Wheel guidelines, we will remain mechanical and sell puts in PFE today.

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.

With all of our short-term overbought measures in extreme territory I want to add a bear call spread to the mix for the August expiration cycle. While I look at overbought extremes as simply weight of evidence, it’s hard to pass up a trade when we are seeing overbought extremes coupled with several other market indicators that are screaming a short-term extreme is here.

This morning, I published my latest recommendation: Buy 2seventy bio (TSVT).

We currently own the JPM January 17, 2025, 100 call LEAPS contract at $46.20. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

I am buying back our short calls today and immediately selling more premium. Our June 16, 2023, 55 calls are essentially worthless, so let’s buy back our calls, lock in some profits and immediately sell more call premium.

With the June 16, 2023, expiration cycle coming to a close at week’s end, it’s time to start buying back our short calls and selling more premium going out 30 to 60 days. I’ll be sending out numerous trade alerts for the various portfolios over the next few days, including the potential for new trades in our active portfolios. My hope is to have all of our June 16 positions rolled by mid-day Wednesday.

We are moving shares of Molson Coors Beverage Company (TAP) from Buy to Sell. The shares are approaching our 69 price target, with only about 4% upside remaining.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The market’s action continues to take steps in the right direction, with more bullish character changes among big-picture measures and, more importantly, leading stocks. Tonight, we’re going to add some exposure—we’re going to add another 5% stake in ProShares Ultra S&P Fund (SSO), buy another half-sized stake in Uber (UBER), and start a fresh half position in DoubleVerify (DV). That will leave us with just over half in cash—still plenty of cushion if the rally falters, but also lots of dry powder to pounce on new leaders should they continue to firm up.

With 11 days left until the June 16, 2023, expiration cycle ends, we need to begin the process of rolling the remainder of our short calls and immediately selling more call premium, preferably in July. In addition, CSCO has rallied as of late, which has pushed our short calls in the money. As a result, I want to buy our short calls back and immediately sell more.

Our short calls are in-the-money and are due to expire today. As a result, we are going to buy back our short calls and immediately sell more premium.

I plucked Samsara (IOT) off our Watch List in early March after the company’s strong earnings report, hoping to grab a bigger upside move. Since then, the stock has been up and down some and closed yesterday right around our entry price.

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.