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The week has brought some impressive rebounds, and I’m putting two stocks back on Buy today. That brings our total number of Buy-rated positions to six (plus our bond ladder), a slightly more constructive stance than we’ve taken in recent weeks.

Stocks began the second half of 2024 exactly the way they behaved for much of the first half: at all-time highs, but with only a couple handfuls of mega-cap tech stocks and artificial intelligence plays doing most of the heavy lifting. It remains both a bull market and a stock picker’s market, so today we pick a stock that’s been attracting a lot of institutional attention of late. It’s a tech stock, but it’s no mega-cap; it’s a small-cap, space-related title that Tyler Laundon recommended to his Cabot Early Opportunities audience last month. Its shares have exactly doubled this year and yet still trade 40% below their 2021 highs.

Details inside.

The good news is that four weeks of upside action has brought a new buy signal from Cabot’s intermediate-term market timing indicator. But this doesn’t mean you can jump in with both feet yet; there’s still reason for caution.

One way Cabot Stock of the Week exercises caution is by diversifying widely, not only among industries but also among investment strategies. Today’s recommendation, a big undervalued robotics company in Japan, is an excellent example.



As for the rest of the portfolio, it’s acting well and thus the only change today is a downgrade of one stock—which has got a bit high—from buy to hold.



Full details in the issue.

As you’ve probably surmised by now, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of buying stocks that are coming off fresh 52-week lows, preferring instead those that have carved out a decent bottoming pattern—both in terms of price and sentiment. Nor, for that matter, do I tend to favor buying stocks that are so far out of favor with investors that continued selling pressure is still an ever-present possibility.

But sometimes a stock becomes so cheap, so out of favor and so “wound up” with short interest and capitulation that the temptation to do some bottom fishing is simply too great to pass up. This is especially the case when the turnaround story is so compelling that it practically writes itself. Such is the case with this month’s featured recommendation, Helen of Troy (HELE).

The market continued its strong rebound from its early April lows as the indexes rose all five days last week. The S&P 500 gained 2.9%, the Dow rallied 3% and the Nasdaq advanced by 3.4%.

The market continued its strong rebound from its early April lows as the indexes rose all five days last week. The S&P 500 gained 2.9%, the Dow rallied 3% and the Nasdaq advanced by 3.4%.

Coming off a losing week two weeks ago, the indexes mostly regained that lost ground last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow advanced 1.6% and the Nasdaq rallied 2%.

Coming off a losing week two weeks ago, the indexes mostly regained that lost ground last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow advanced 1.6% and the Nasdaq rallied 2%.

Current Market Outlook


The selling pressure that we saw emerge two weeks ago really picked up last week, with the vast majority of leading growth stocks cracking intermediate-term support. That said, the rest of the market has refused to follow the Nasdaq’s lead; there’s been some damage and plenty of wobbles, but so far the broader indexes have held up, and buying in many cyclical areas has picked up. Just going with the evidence, we’d be shying away from growth stocks while looking for opportunities in the strong sectors should they rest or shakeout. Our biggest thought, though, is that making money has become much harder during the past month and a half, with wild moves, rotation and volatility, so now’s a time to go slow and give some thought to capital preservation until we see the buyers really flex their muscles. We’re moving our Market Monitor to a level 5.

As expected, this week’s list is heavy on cyclical and re-opening themes, with many names showing excellent action. Our Top Pick is Marriott Vacations (VAC), which has soaring earnings estimates and a stock that just lifted out of a three-year base on huge volume.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF)	32	28.5-30.5	24.5-25.5
Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG)	139	134-140	119-123
Applied Materials (AMAT)	106	102-107	92-94
Diamondback Energy (FANG)	84	76-80	66-68
Lyft (LYFT)	64	58-62	51-53.5
Marriott Vacations (VAC)	184	177-183	154-158
The Middleby Corporation (MIDD)	166	162-167	144-147
Nucor Corporation (NUE)	66	63-65	56.5-57.5
PDC Energy (PDCE)	38	34-36.5	28-29.5
Texas Roadhouse (TXRH)	95	91.5-94	82.5-84

Even though there was some crazy action in the market last week the bulls remain in charge and many stocks are breaking out to fresh highs.

Current Market Outlook


Last week brought some upside-down action, with the leading growth stocks doing OK (some up, some down) while the lagging names (small- and mid-caps, economically sensitive sectors) did very well. And that trend continued today, with growth stocks getting hit while the major indexes ramped up. Overall, the upmove in the beaten-down areas means the intermediate-term trend has survived its first test, and while taking on some water, growth stocks remain in fine shape, with very little abnormal selling. (In fact, pullbacks in some of the hot names could offer up some solid entry points, but we’ll see how that goes.) All in all, the divergent environment isn’t ideal and will probably lead to further crosscurrents; it remains important to pick your stocks and entry points carefully, and taking some partial profits on the way up isn’t a bad idea, either. But overall, most of the evidence remains positive, so you should, too. Our Market Monitor remains at a level 7.

This week’s list has many names that have just come to life after long rest periods. Our Top Pick is Spotify (SPOT), which has always had a good story, but now has decisively broken out following a meaningful catalyst.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO)	48.94	46-48.5	40.5-41.5
Big Lots (BIG)	43.12	31-33	27-28
BJs Wholesale (BJ)	36.69	34-36.5	30.5-32
Guardant Health (GH)	88.34	87.5-91.5	79-81
Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP)	49.89	45.5-48	40.5-42
Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX)	123.40	114-119	104-107
1Life Healthcare (ONEM)	34.01	32.5-35	28.5-29.5
Spotify (SPOT)	272.82	184-191	166-169
Wayfair (W)	167.03	152-162	126-130
Wix.com (WIX)	302.53	195-205	175-180

Getting to the market today—first we had the August 24 bottom, a month later we had the retest, and now we’ve got a rally that, while it’s not perfect, is certainly creating some winners. I think selective buying is okay. But what to buy? For my money, there are two methods of stock-picking that tend to work.

Stocks struggled back from early losses yesterday after blue chips posted their biggest two-day gains in more than two years.

Explorer stocks had a good week with most up nicely and Infineon (IFFNY) up about 18%.

Perhaps the best indicator of where the U.S. and global economy is going are commodity prices. For example, copper prices are gaining ground though they are still far from highs reached earlier this year.

Centrus Energy (LEU) was steady this week as Congress seeks another $1.5 billion in a government funding bill to boost domestic supply of uranium to offset lost Russian fuel.

Ford (F) shares rose 7% this week as its October U.S. sales declined by 10% but electric vehicle (EV) sales rose nearly 120% year over year. It now claims to be the #2 EV seller in America behind Tesla.

The market has been on edge since the Fed’s hawkish tone and updated Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) last week. But if we can get oil and interest rates to back off a little and some stock-specific catalysts during the upcoming Q3 earnings season maybe we can finally take our macroeconomist hats off and get back to doing what we’d rather do. Which is talk about some of the great small growth stories out there!