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Tariffs are back in the news. And the stock market doesn’t like it.

Investors shrug off a lot of things these days – geopolitical turmoil (lots of it), flagging jobs growth, a record-long government shutdown, wars, etc. But tariffs, and tariff threats, are still a four-letter word on Wall Street. So it was no surprise that stocks had their worst day of the young year on Tuesday after President Trump threatened high tariffs on Europe over the Greenland situation, and European leaders responded in kind.

Perhaps the whole kerfuffle will be settled over a catered lunch at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Or maybe tensions will escalate further. Either way, this feels like a pivotal week for stocks.

Think $1 million is unrealistic? These five stocks turned $10,000 into a fortune for long-term investors.

Tariffs are back in the news, and the market doesn’t like it. How long they remain in the news is anybody’s guess. Perhaps the situation will be settled over lunch in Davos this week. In the meantime, fourth-quarter earnings season serves as a welcome diversion and ramps up this week after some mixed results from the banks last week. Speaking of banks, today we add a regional play that should pair well with our Morgan Stanley (MS) holding. It’s a lower-risk, income-generating stock that is a new choice of Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson.

Details inside.

Sell Credo Tech (CRDO) and Viking Holdings (VIK)

It’s been a good start to the year so far with the S&P up 1.38%. But the bigger story is under the hood.

Most sectors are outperforming the S&P 500. Seven of the eleven S&P stock sectors are outperforming the index in January. And none of them are technology. This is in sharp contrast to performance through most of this bull market, with technology driving the market higher while most other stocks sputter around.

$10,000 gold may seem like an outlandish claim, but investors trying to preserve their purchasing power in the face of relentless money-printing may make it a reality.

Coming off record highs early last week, U.S. equities drifted lower as the week progressed as the first week of the corporate earnings season unfolded. And despite upbeat earnings from select tech and semiconductor names, profit-taking set in across large caps late in the week and kept the major averages slightly underwater by Friday’s close. Small caps bucked the broader trend, continuing their early-year leadership as the Russell 2000 extended gains on optimism around economic resilience and rotation out of mega caps. For the week, the S&P 500 lost 0.4%, the Dow fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.7%.

Contrarian investing has failed for the last several months, despite an excess of bullishness in the markets, but the contrarian principle can still work when applied properly.

Please note this is an update focused solely on our open positions as I am away from my home office and stuck in travel limbo having been impacted by the snow/ice storm this past weekend. I HOPE to be back at the desk this evening, but that is in question. However, while I’m away from my desk, I am still able to monitor our positions if we need to make moves.

If you are a commodities or small-cap investor, you’d probably be heavily invested right now -- but, for growth stocks, the environment remains challenging, with lots of ups and downs but no real progress, and with most growth funds (including the Nasdaq) under performing even defensive stocks. The odds favor the next major move being up, but until that starts, we’re staying relatively close to shore and waiting for more stocks to get going, possibly during earnings season.

The last couple of years haven’t exactly been kind on food, beverage and restaurant stocks. Generally speaking, the companies in the food and drinks category underperformed the S&P 500 last year, while in the case of restaurants, 2025 was a particularly bad one.

Let’s begin in Davos, Switzerland where the world’s financial and political bigwigs are gathering at the World Economic Forum to do deals and await the fate of Greenland. Markets rebounded yesterday as President Trump softened his position on Greenland a bit, thus raising hopes of reaching an amicable agreement.

Gold was a hot topic as investors continue to seek a hedge on uncertainty. Central banks have been significant net buyers of gold every year since 2011.

Buying “the boom” — a good story and an impressive run — can be a costly mistake. The best way to generate sustainable returns is to buy “the trend.”

SanDisk (SNDK), a recent spin-off from Western Digital (WDC), has doubled in the last month and 10x’ed in less than a year. Here’s what’s behind the move.

More than half the country is buried in snow or ice today. And yet, stocks continue to hum along regardless of the weather, economic headwinds or myriad geopolitical worries. A big one was quickly stamped out last week, when renewed tariff threats caused a brief market shock before cooler heads prevailed in Davos. This week will be dominated by mega-cap earnings and another Fed meeting. Given the market’s resilience against all-comers of late, today we take another big swing with a mid-cap industrial stock that was the Top Pick from Tyler Laundon in the most recent edition of Cabot Early Opportunities advisory.

Details inside.