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Cabot Growth Investor Issue: January 12, 2023

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Broad Market Leaps; Potential Leaders Still Iffy

In our last issue of 2022, we wrote that better times were ahead, partly because a bull always follows a bear, but also because of the pervasive negativity out there (everyone knows a recession is coming, right?) and the fact that the indexes—and especially the broad market—hadn’t gone down on a net-net basis since the spring/summer, despite the bad news, rate hikes and housing slowdown, indicating a potential bottom area as the bulls awaited tehir moment.

And the broad market must have been listening because the action over the past two weeks has been superb: Under the surface, breadth has been great, with measures like the advance-decline line soaring and our own Two-Second Indicator turning green, as the number of stocks hitting new lows drying up to very bullish levels. And, believe it or not, the move has been so impressive during the past two weeks that one of the two granddaddy blastoff indicators we follow (the 2-to-1) appears to have flashed green today, something that’s both rare and almost always portends higher prices in the months ahead.

The broad market action and associated signals are all very encouraging, especially when combined with the factors mentioned at the outset (horrid sentiment and a multi-month bottom area)—steps in the right direction, for sure. But there are still many pieces of the puzzle that aren’t yet in place, starting with our trusted trend following indicators: Our Cabot Tides have improved but are still effectively neutral, while our Cabot Trend Lines are still bearish (have been for nearly a year now). Growth funds are in the same position, as the current chart of the IBD Mutual Fund Index shows.

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Plus, as mentioned in the title, potential leading stocks (especially growth stocks, but really most everything) are still acting iffy. Yes, some look fairly peppy, but selling near key resistance areas is still the rule, not the exception, and there are as many (if not more) blowups/potholes (things being sold or cracking support) as powerful breakouts.

Thus, top-down (evidence for the overall market), there are legitimate positives developing, though bottoms-up (looking at things stock by stock), it remains very tricky. In our book, an overall cautious approach makes sense, but after pruning some underperformers, we are putting a bit of cash to work tonight—and if this recent strength spreads, we’ll follow up on the buy side.

What to Do Now

In the Model Portfolio, we’re re-jiggering things a bit, getting rid of losers and underperformers and focusing on fresher, more resilient names should the good vibes continue. Since the calendar flipped, we sold three half-sized positions (ENPH, HALO and DXCM), all of which have taken on water. But tonight, we’re starting three new half positions: Academy Sports (ASO), Shift 4 (FOUR) and ProShares Ultra S&P 500 Fund (SSO). We’ll still be about three-quarters in cash after the moves; should more bullish evidence appear, we’ll follow up with more buying, but starting slow is prudent.

Model Portfolio Update

As we wrote in the intro, there are definite signs of improvement when looking at things from a top-down perspective—the intermediate-term trend is back to neutral (indeed, it’s now been nearly three months since the major indexes hit their nadir, FYI) and the Two-Second Indicator’s action is very noteworthy, with selling pressures on the broad market drying up in a big way. (See more on that later in this issue.) We’ll see what today’s final NYSE breadth measurements are, but it’s also possible the 2-to-1 blastoff indicator spoke up, too.

That said, when it comes to the Model Portfolio, our system focuses on finding leading growth stocks—owning just a couple of fresh leaders that have new, innovative products and riding them for most of their move can make a massive difference in your portfolio (and life).

But right now, despite the top-down improvements, the bottoms-up evidence remains mixed, with just as many (if not more) potholes and air pockets compared to big, upside surprises—and that’s only looking at firms with solid sales and earnings growth, good projections and (many times) reasonable valuations, too.

Because of that, we’re definitely in a go-slow mode, but we’re also in a rejiggering mode when it comes the portfolio—including yesterday’s bulletin, we’ve pruned three small positions that have cracked or are being rotated out of, and tonight we’re starting positions in some fresh, stronger potential issues. As always, if we start to make some progress, we’ll look to follow up (average up and/or add new names), but we’ll take it one step at a time. Our cash position will still be around 75% after these moves, but we’ll be on the horn if that changes in the days ahead.

CURRENT RECOMMENDATIONS

StockNo. of SharesPortfolio WeightingsPrice BoughtDate BoughtPrice on 1/12/23ProfitRating
Academy Sports & Outdoors (ASO)----55-Buy a Half
Dexcom (DXCM)------Sold
Enphase Energy (ENPH)------Sold
Halozyme (HALO)------Sold
ProShares Ultra S&P 500 Fund (SSO)----48-Buy a Half
Shift4 (FOUR)----60-Buy a Half
Wingstop (WING)1,31911%14410/7/221525%Hold
CASH$1,616,01689%

Academy Sports & Outdoors (ASO)—We’re always looking for the next great growth story, but given the tricky market environment, a bit of value and stability doesn’t hurt, either. ASO fills that bill, with a business that’s far from revolutionary (all sorts of outdoors and sporting equipment) but has proved much more resilient than thought—most believed the boom in earnings (from $1.12 per share in 2019 to $7.60 in 2021) was something that would fade along with the pandemic, but while there’s been a bit of retrenchment business has hung in there nicely (regularly topping expectations), keeping earnings near their peak and allowing for a good amount of share buybacks. Moreover, the firm itself is a top operator (better sales per square foot than competitors, etc.), and management is thinking big—Academy had 259 locations coming into 2022, opened nine new ones through October, and is likely to boost that count by another 80 or so (30%) over the next four years; the stores are expected to be EBITDA positive after year 1 and, in total, could easily add a few bucks to per-share earnings over time. The risk, of course, is that the consumer really pares back and earnings do stumble, but big investors certainly aren’t looking for that—analysts see the bottom line holding steady (well above $7 per share) in 2023 and the stock looks great, actually breaking out from a huge launching pad after earnings in December and holding that level in recent weeks (a rarity in this sell-on-strength environment). Near-term wiggles of two or three points wouldn’t be surprising, but we see a solid risk-reward situation here—we’ll buy a half-sized position (5% of the portfolio) tomorrow with a stop in the upper 40s. BUY A HALF

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Dexcom (DXCM)—Like most medical and biotech names this week, Dexcom presented at JP Morgan’s powwow and released preliminary Q4 results as well as their 2023 outlook. Both were OK, not great: For Q4, the firm sees revenues up 20% on an organic basis, while for 2023 as a whole, Dexcom is starting with a 15% to 20% top-line growth outlook, below expectations. Yes, those figures are likely conservative (Dexcom usually tops estimates), but the stock has sagged on a pickup in volume after the news. We debated giving DXCM a few more points of wiggle room as our loss wasn’t that big, so if you want to do so (especially with a smaller position), that’s fine. But (a) giving other names that began to crack extra wiggle room hasn’t helped of late, with most continuing lower, and (b) we want to focus on stocks gaining strength as the market is improving, not the other way around. Thus, we decided to take the small loss on our half-sized stake in yesterday’s bulletin and look elsewhere. SOLD

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Enphase Energy (ENPH)—You don’t usually see stocks go from hero to zero in just a couple of weeks, and even if you do, it’s almost always because of an earnings report or some obvious news. But this is a unique environment that’s caused many names (even big names) to crater, and Enphase was the latest, falling persistently during the past few weeks to slice long-term support. Interestingly, while some other solar names have taken on water, few have fallen apart like ENPH, which usually isn’t a great ign. Whatever the case, we’re looking for stocks that are firming up as the market does the same, and ENPH clearly has seen something come loose. We sold our half-sized position last week. SOLD

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Halozyme (HALO)—HALO was a real disappointment—everything from the chart to the numbers to the sector to the stock’s resilience and tightness near year-end gave off good vibes (even the valuation was tame), but the company’s poor 2023 guidance on Tuesday evening swept all of that aside. As we wrote in yesterday’s bulletin, the firm’s expectations for revenues (including royalty revenue) and earnings came up well short of Wall Street’s expectations, causing shares to fall sharply on big volume. There is support in the upper 40s, so maybe HALO can hold up a bit longer and, should a few positives come out, shape up down the road. But it’s also possible that the news and so-so growth profile for 2023 keeps a cap on the stock even if the market improves. We took the modest loss on our half-sized stake and are putting money into stronger situations. SOLD

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ProShares Ultra S&P 500 Fund (SSO)—A month ago, the broad market was more or less on its knees, but then we saw a very quiet, late-year positive divergence in the Nasdaq (new lows were much smaller on the retest). And now, during the past two weeks, we’ve seen the broad market show actual strength—our favorite way of looking at this is our own Two-Second Indicator, which hasn’t just improved but is showing very bullish readings (this week’s readings: 9,6,5 and looks like ~12 today). And while we’ll see what the final figures are, the 2-to-1 Blastoff Indicator looks like it gave a buy signal today; it would be its first since 2020 and just the 13th since 1960 (not counting some repeat signals). In the past, the indicator has been pristine, with the S&P 500 seeing a maximum average gain of around 25% during the next 12 months, and usually with relatively little drawdown from the signal (average maximum loss for the S&P 500 from the signal was just 2%, though a couple were definitely deeper than that). This is one of our two granddaddy blastoff indicators (the 90% Blastoff is the other), and it’s certainly a great sign—but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that a couple of “mini-” or secondary-type blastoff indicators did flash last year … with poor results, usually after the Fed blasted the market with tough talk or rate hikes. Does that mean the 2-to-1 signal isn’t valid? We don’t think so—the nearly 60-year track record of this indicator (and the 90% one) is hard to beat, much better than the measures that flashed last year—but we also think it’s fair to have a “trust but verify” attitude after what happened last year. Long story short, we’re optimistic, but instead of plowing into a full position of SSO as we normally would (the fund moves about twice the S&P 500 every day, up or down), we’ll start with a half-sized stake with the idea of averaging up if the market acts as it “should.” If it doesn’t, of course, we’ll keep any loss under control. One last point: If you want to play the Nasdaq 100 (QLD) or Russell 2000 (UWM), you can—or spread some money around with a couple of them—but we’ll keep it simple and focus on SSO. BUY A HALF

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Shift4 (FOUR)—Of all the names we’ve been monitoring on our watch list, we’re highest on Shift4, which months ago looked like a new payment leader, and all of the data (and stock action) since then seems to confirm it. (That includes the fact that FOUR has been peppy while peers like PayPal, Block/Square and Toast have seen their stocks mostly languish.) We think a big reason is that, while the firm’s core restaurant and hospitality clients are doing well, Shift4 is moving into a ton of big, new areas like sports and entertainment, gambling resorts, travel, non-profits and more, all of which should help goose growth going ahead. The numbers (sales up 45%, earnings up 69% in Q3, continuing a string of solid growth) are outstanding, as are estimates ($2 per share for 2023, up 51%), and the top brass believes payment volume can double in total during 2023-2024, which should drive revenues up 60%. Like most things, any major fear of a deep recession (less travel and consumer spending in general) could hurt perception, but big investors seem to be thinking the best is yet to come. Near-term, the trick here is the chart: FOUR has spurted to new multi-month highs of late, which is excellent … but, of course, we’re still seeing a lot of selling on strength, so a sharp pullback (the stock is very volatile, moving about 5% per day from high to low) is possible. That said, if the market is changing gears (2-to-1 Blastoff signal, Two-Second Indicator, etc.), it’s likely to be the peppier stocks that will be the best performers. All told, we’re going to take a swing at FOUR—starting with a half position (5% of the portfolio) and giving it plenty of rope (down toward 50) for a starting loss limit. BUY A HALF

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Wingstop (WING)—WING was looking worse for wear around year-end, but happily shares have snapped back nicely with the market. The company isn’t presenting at one of the big conferences this week, which seems to be a good thing in the near-term, though we’d guess all systems are go in terms of the story and growth. We’re optimistic the stock’s tedious correction of late (nearly 25% from high to low) is over, but we’ll stay on Hold for now as the stock is bumping up into its 50-day line (near 153) and the recent rally has come on low volume. In terms of a mental stop, a dip all the way back toward the recent lows near 130 would be bearish, though as we just wrote, we’re thinking more that a bottom could be in and that WING could round out a launching pad in the weeks ahead if the market keeps improving. HOLD

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Watch List

  • Axon Enterprises (AXON 184): AXON is now six weeks into a normal, proper base-building formation, which sits just shy of its all-time highs in the 200 area. Business here should be strong and unaffected by the economy as its weapons, cameras and cloud systems attract more law enforcement agencies.
  • Celsius (CELH 106): CELH is five weeks into its own rest phase, which to this point is tighter than its prior pullbacks. A bit more seasoning could set the stage for a breakout, and we have to believe the Pepsi distribution deal is going to help business in a big way.
  • Impinj (PI 120): PI released some positive Q4 guidance this week, though the stock actually reversed on the news. Overall, shares look fine, though our rub is that PI is relatively thinly traded and could get tossed around even if the company does well.
  • Inspire Medical (INSP 244): Medical names have been under the gun lately (not just DXCM and HALO; check out former top performer NBIX), but Inspire seems to be settling down just shy of all-time highs, part of a big two-year launching pad. The company said Q4 will be yet another quarter of 70%-plus revenue growth (much higher than estimates) as adoption of its sleep apnea offering soars.
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS 54): China remains one of the few “themes” that have remained strong, with many Chinese stocks lifting to new recovery highs so far this year. LVS is our favorite in that group and think any reasonable dip could provide a good opportunity.
  • Planet Fitness (PLNT 84): PLNT continues to act well, and its steady growth story (and far less competition following the pandemic’s affect on the competition) should keep big investors interested.
  • Schlumberger (SLB 58): Some commodity areas look great, and oil service stocks are one of them—and SLB is the top dog in the group, with rapid and reliable growth likely as long as oil prices don’t cave in. See more later in this issue.


Other Stocks of Interest

Uber Technologies (UBER 29)—We’re seeing more and more stocks that might not be ready to take off right this second but have put in months of bottoming work even as the market has been tossed around. Uber looked ready for great things in early 2021, but the weakness in growth stocks and (importantly) the firm’s continued red ink caused big investors to pull back—and, of course, the stock tanked from there, falling nearly 70% before finding a bottom. Despite the action, though, the story remains solid, the numbers are improving rapidly … and the stock is beginning to show a little strength. The basics of the story remain straightforward: The firm is the leading ride-sharing provider but also does a huge business in delivery, too—in fact, in Q3, both segments of the business had the same value of bookings ($13.7 billion each!), with rides growing faster (up 45% in currency-neutral terms) than delivery (up 13%) due mostly to the fading of the virus (and booming travel) that’s brought the rides segment back to pre-pandemic activity levels. (The firm also has a modest freight business that’s doing OK, too.) Growth could slow as the economy does, but the big story here is that the top brass has seen the light and is now laser-focused on the bottom line: On an EBITDA basis, Uber was basically breakeven in Q3 of 2021, but that metric has been surging every quarter, coming in at $516 million in Q3 of last year (both rides and delivery are solidly in the black; the figure easily topped estimates), and for the past 12 months, the firm has cranked out free cash flow of $693 million (about 35 cents per share). Better yet, the top brass sees more of where this came from, saying Uber is “at an inflection point in our profitability and free cash flow generation” and has a goal of $5 billion on EBITDA by 2024 (compared to just over $1 billion in the past 12 months); assuming free cash flow grows at a similar pace, it’s hard to believe big investors won’t take a liking to this emerging blue chip. And, when looking at the stock, that process might be starting: UBER exploded higher on earnings in August (one of its heaviest-volume weeks ever), it held well above its lows ever since despite the market’s shenanigans and has pushed above its 40-week line this week. There’s still some resistance above here, but like a growing list of names, a good couple of weeks (or maybe a good earnings reaction; no set date but Q4 results are likely out in early February) could give us something to work with.

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United Rentals (URI 391)—Interest rates have gone way up over the past year and a recession seems to be a given if you listen to forecasters, but there are many construction-type names that are acting well—possibly due to the infrastructure boom that’s getting underway, which isn’t just from Uncle Sam but also due to the surge in spending from the energy and power generation firms. United Rentals is one of the most direct ways to play the trend, as it’s the largest equipment rental firm in the U.S., with north of 1,300 locations and a fleet of 890,000 units valued at more than $17 billion. Long term, there are tailwinds here, as renting equipment for a few months is a lot cheaper than having to buy it, but the reason the stock is strong is that investors have been figuring for months that business was about to get hit, but instead, just the opposite has occurred—sales (up 18% in Q3) and earnings (up 41%) have continued to crank ahead, as the firm’s end markets (non-residential construction, industrial, oil and gas, chemical plants and more) have remained more than resilient—and in its Q3 report, the top brass said that, while the economy has crosscurrents, sentiment from its customers remains in good shape and it sees brighter times ahead. Plus, the firm itself has spent years working on the cost side of the equation, boosting margins and free cash flow generation (likely came in around $24 per share in 2022). Sure, it’s not a sexy story, but such is the market environment we’re currently in—and the chart is nearly pristine, with a top in November 2021, a big decline into June, and then an up-down-up phase in the months that followed. But then shares came under control, tightening up nicely, before pushing to multi-month highs this year. With the stock trading at just 12 times earnings, with estimates heading up and with the economy continuing to hang in there, the stock looks poised for higher prices if the market can keep its head above water.

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Mobileye (MBLY 34)—Mobileye is an Israeli company that used to be a stand-alone operation before it was gobbled up by Intel in 2017—but, despite the awful market conditions, Intel decided to spin the operation back out (though it still owns nearly all the votin gpower) in October, and its story and outlook are as solid as ever. Mobileye’s claim to fame is its technology that is pushing forward advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and, ideally, will popularize autonomous vehicles down the road—the firm’s camera and lidar-based offerings (remote sensing technology using pulsed lasers) improve the safety profile of vehicles today, and while fully autonomous products are likely a couple of decades off, Mobileye is inking supply deals today for its “eyes-on, hands-off” SuperVision system that allows for things like autonomous lane changing, traffic jam assistance, evasive maneuvers and front and rear collision avoidance. (Nine car models from six brands should be up and running with some SuperVision systems by 2026; 60,000 vehicles with this technology are already on the road.) The company has deals with many well-known car clients (Ford, GM, Hyundai, BMW, Volkswagen, Nissan, etc.) and bookings are ramping in a huge way: In the first nine months of the year, Mobileye booked orders for 54 million ADAS systems (each one is just north of $50), miles ahead of the 24 million that it shipped during that time. And just last week, the company announced that its revenue pipeline through 2030 stood at $17.3 billion, with $6.7 billion of that being booked just in 2022. Granted, these figures are super long-term and involve some management estimates, but there’s little doubt business should accelerate further in the quarters to come. Following a spinoff, it’s not unusual to see some messy numbers, but Mobileye has posted strong growth (sales up 38% and 41% the past two quarters) and is solidly profitable (has been for years; earnings around 65 cents per share last year with after-tax profit margins of 25% in Q3), though analysts see the bottom line relatively stagnant in 2023. Those might be conservative, but more important will be deal flow and some consistency in the outlook—if so, this has emerging blue chip written all over it. There’s not much to dive into on the chart, but the fact that MBLY came public in a bear market, held its own and has actually risen in recent weeks is a good sign. The longer it can stave off any post-IPO droop, the greater the odds the stock can take off when growth stocks do.

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What’s Up with Commodity Stocks?

After being the dog’s dinner for many years, commodity companies changed their stripes, following a new playbook that saw much less money spent on expanding production (and also less speculative acquisitions; M&A has focused mostly on bolt-on purchases) and emphasized harvesting free cash flow—and paying a lot of that cash flow to shareholders. That boosted investor perception over many months and led to some huge moves in oil, coal and other areas.

While we’re not really top-down (economic and sector) investors, it’s no secret that commodity stocks tend to do well near the end of major market moves before topping, and it looked to be the same this time around, with the price of many items (oil, natural gas, coal, copper) losing altitude as 2022 wore on and the Fed made money harder to get—and many stocks followed their lead, topping out and posting good-sized declines.

However, a funny thing has happened in recent months: While some commodity names are still languishing, many others are hanging in there despite falling prices, with some actually hovering near new high ground! If you’re looking for reasons why, there are plenty, from the still-resilient global economy (helped along by China’s likely reopening), a Fed that seems likely to ease up on the brake soon and valuations, with a lot of stocks still offering attractive cash flow profiles.

Oil service stocks are one area to watch: Oil prices fell more than 40% from their June peak and nearly 20% just since Halloween, yet service stocks like Weatherford (WFRD)—which actually was in Chapter 11 four years ago but came out of it with less debt and fat and is now gushing profits—and Schlumberger (SLB, shown here) are kissing new high ground. After years of underinvestment, it’s likely the need for these firms’ various offerings will stay strong even at modest oil prices.

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Then there’s Freeport McMoRan (FCX), which is the world’s third-largest copper producer (and it also does good business with gold, which doesn’t hurt the cause). Copper prices themselves got hit hard last year but are rebounding (from $5 to $3.10 and now back to $4.10), but even at modest pricing cash flow should be big—instead of seeing the bottom line swing wildly from big profits to big losses, Freeport believes it can crank out $6 billion of EBITDA (about 10% of the current market cap) at $3 copper, with that figure rising to $14 billion (23% of the market cap) at $5 copper. FCX’s RP line bottomed in mid-July and the stock recently moved out to its highest level since April.

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Then there’s Arch Coal (ARCH), which we’ve written up before. Coal is hardly exciting, and long term, it’s likely to be phased out somewhat in more and more countries, replaced by natural gas and renewable sources. But in response, ARCH has shaped up its balance sheet (way more cash than debt), is paying out half of its monstrous cash flow and likely using the rest for share buybacks. In Q3, that meant a dividend of $10.75 per share (8% of the current share price!) paid in December and probably plenty of buybacks over the past few months, too. Earnings and dividends should shrink in 2023 but remain giant, and the stock is still hanging in there even after quintupling from late 2020 to last spring.

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We’re focusing on potential growth stock leaders first and foremost, but we also have an eye on select commodity names—the longer they can hold up and even attract buyers, the greater the chance that their runs aren’t over yet.

The Two-Second Indicator Speaks**

We’ve been following our Two-Second Indicator (our founder Carlton Lutts named it that because it took just two seconds each day to check in the newspaper) for many decades, and it’s always provided us with value as a measure of whether the broad market is healthy, or whether the selling pressures are elevated. It sounds simple, and it is, but when the number of stocks hitting new lows is very tame (we use 40 as a demarcation level on the NYSE, but the lower the better), it’s usually a sign the sellers have no ammo left—especially if the readings come after many weeks or months of selling.

Last year, for instance, saw just 25 trading days (call it 10% of the total) with readings under 40, with the longest single stretch of sub-40 readings just seven days (occurring in August). Clearly, that matches up with a bear market environment. We’ve written a few times that when the turn comes, you usually see new lows not just dip but plunge and stay down, sometimes near zero, as the broad market takes off with a new bull market. That certainly didn’t happen at any point last year.

But that’s what makes the indicator’s action since the calendar flipped particularly interesting: Starting the first trading day of the New Year, the number of new lows on the NYSE has been under 40 for eight straight days (marking the longest stretch since 2021), including very tame readings this week. The readings on the Nasdaq also look great, having dried up nicely after a positive divergence in late December.

Now, you probably noticed the asterisks in the title of this section—and the reason to have a bit of caution about the current readings has to do with the calendar: Early January is full of crosscurrents, with one being lots of tax-loss selling late in the year (often inflates the new lows figures) followed by some off-the-bottom buying and selling of last year’s winners early in January (depressing the readings).

Still, being careful when interpreting the readings doesn’t mean ignoring them—we tend to simply go with what we see, and every day that goes by with very tame readings bolsters the evidence the sellers may be going into hibernation. With most other indicators still bearish, growth investors should remain cautious, but the Two-Second Indicator is certainly giving off positive vibes.

Cabot Market Timing Indicators

The top-down action for the market has taken a few steps in the right direction, with our Tides back to (effectively) neutral, our Two-Second Indicator positive and what looks like a green light from the 2-to-1 Blastoff Indicator. Potential leading stocks remain a mixed bag, so it’s not time to be aggressive, but we’re optimistic, are doing some buying and will add exposure if the bulls continue to make headway.

Cabot Trend Lines: Bearish
The Cabot Trend Lines remain bearish, though like everything else, there’s been improvement—the S&P 500 is currently nosing above its trend line (by 1%; the last dot on the charts below is through Wednesday of this week), though the lagging Nasdaq (growth stocks) is still nearly 4% below its own 35-week line. We like the action, of course, but we need to see both indexes close two straight weeks north of their trend lines for a buy signal—thus, the longer-term trend remains down, providing reason to stay relatively cautious.

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Cabot Tides: On The Fence
Our Cabot Tides took a hit in mid December, with most indexes cracking their lower (50-day) moving averages—but to their credit, they held firm after the initial post-Fed selling and have rebounded nicely. By the letter of the law, you could say the Tides are back to positive (the S&P 500 daily chart is shown here), and if this recent strength holds we’ll say just that. Tonight, though, we’ll call them neutral (on the fence) given that most everything is still range bound during the past couple of months. Even so, it’s a step in the right direction and a few more positive days could be decisive.

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Two-Second Indicator: Positive
As we write about earlier in this issue, our Two-Second Indicator has turned on a dime, with readings not just dipping under 40 but plunging into the single digits the first three days of this week. Yes, some of that could be the “early January” effect as investors rotate into beaten-down names, but it’s now been eight days in a row of sub-40 readings. We’ll be watching closely, but at this point, the evidence is starting to suggest that the sellers are running out of ammo.

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The next Cabot Growth Investor issue will be published on January 26, 2023.

A growth stock and market timing expert, Michael Cintolo is Chief Investment Strategist of Cabot Wealth Network and Chief Analyst of Cabot Growth Investor and Cabot Top Ten Trader. Since joining Cabot in 1999, Mike has uncovered exceptional growth stocks and helped to create new tools and rules for buying and selling stocks. Perhaps most notable was his development of the proprietary trend-following market timing system, Cabot Tides, which has helped Cabot place among the top handful of market-timing newsletters numerous times.