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Bitcoin - and other cryptocurrencies - are becoming the reserve currency for the digital age. Here’s what that means - and how to profit.

Last August, there was a lot of buzz about the film “I.O.U.S.A.” and I wrote about it for Cabot Wealth Advisory. At the time, the U.S. national debt looked pretty bad, but this was before we had failed banks, a stock market crash and a long string of government bailouts. This week brought the prediction of a 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion, which is more than the total of all previous deficits since the United States’ founding. The White House went on to say that by the next decade’s end, the national debt would equal three-quarters of the entire U.S. economy. So I’ve come up with some solutions for how the U.S. government can alleviate some of our deficit:

This is a big week for financial markets, with the Fed holding interest rates steady, $11 trillion worth of tech companies reporting earnings, a key jobs report, and a tariff deadline with China and India looming. The market pulled back as Chairman Jerome Powell indicated the Fed may not be ready to cut interest rates as expected.

But 7,392 miles from the canyons of Wall Street, an AI global governance plan was released at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, which called for establishing an international open-source community through which AI models can freely be available. About 800 Chinese and international companies attended the summit.

When it comes to the market’s action, there’s not much to say—the crash-like action seen in growth stocks since the start of the year has spread out to most every nook and cranny of the market. To be fair, near term, we are starting to see some extremes, plus we’re still seeing a fair number (not a lot) of stocks hanging in there—taking on water for sure, but not definitively cracking. Overall, we continue to advise a cautious/defensive stance; capital preservation is the first goal these days. That said, given how stretched everything is to the downside, we think it’s OK to give things a little more wiggle room on the downside if you already have lots of cash. Our Market Monitor will remain at a level 4.



This week’s list is mostly a mix of energy and defensive-oriented stocks. Our Top Pick is a big energy services outfit that should see growth accelerate going ahead.

Over the past month or so, it seemed like stocks would continue their frenetic surge. This week, however, the market appears relatively lackluster with a lot less excitement. Some investors may yearn for more fireworks, but as a value investor, I find this calm to be more sane.

The market and most stocks remain in a solid uptrend, though earnings are beginning to have the anticipated push-pull effect on the market, with lots of gaps up and down to start the day. We think increased volatility is nearly a sure bet going forward, especially after such a great rebound. In the short-term, then, make sure you have a plan of how you want to deal with earnings season (we include any upcoming earnings dates of our recommendations in today’s issue), and be prepared for lots of action in both directions. Long-term, though, the path of least resistance remains up, so we favor using normal retreats as buying opportunities.

This week’s list is one of the more growth-oriented that we’ve seen this year; just about every stock has a real, sustainable growth story with solid numbers. Our favorite of the week is Proto Labs (PRLB), which has set up a nice risk-reward entry here after tightening up for a few weeks.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Zillow (Z)	76.64	67-69	59-60
Vipshop Holdings (VIPS)	14.25	34-36	30-31
Trulia (TRLA)	0.00	35.5-37	31-32
Santarus (SNTS)	0.00	23.5-24.5	20-21
Spirit Airlines (SAVE)	57.03	33-35	30-31
Proto Labs (PRLB)	0.00	63-65	56-58
Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NUS)	46.07	78-80	70-71
Nationstar Mortgage (NSM)	0.00	44-46	40.5-41.5
Generac Holdings (GNRC)	86.60	39.5-41	36-37
Ambarella (AMBA)	52.79	17.5-19	16-16.5

Current Market Outlook


Officially, the major indexes are still in no-man’s land, gyrating within their two-month ranges. But the action is definitely feeling heavier. While a few stocks have emerged during earnings season (including a few in today’s issue), every market rally of a day or two has led to quick selling pressure; the broad market can’t get its act together and most stocks that poke into new high ground quickly retreat. We’re still not willing to make any bold predictions here—the environment remains more choppy than bearish—but the bottom line is that no money is being made. Thus we are knocking our Market Monitor down a notch (though it’s still in neutral territory) due to the recent deterioration.

The silver lining is that our screens are still picking up on a good number of resilient stocks, including more than a few earnings winners. Our Top Pick this week is Harman International (HAR), which has come to life after a yearlong rest. Try to buy on dips.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Pacira Biosiences (PCRX)	54.85	103-107	95-97
ServiceNow (NOW)	341.86	70-73	65-66
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)	423.92	420-440	385-390
Lowe’s Companies (LOW)	98.15	66-68	60-62
Harman International Industries, Inc. (HAR)	0.00	126-131	115-116
Freescale Semiconductor (FSL)	0.00	30-32	26.5-27
Blackstone Group (BX)	49.12	35.5-36.5	32-33
Burlington Stores (BURL)	193.95	45-50	44.5-45
Biogen (BIIB)	0.00	378-385	348-352
Boeing (BA)	432.22	141.5-146.5	130-132

Current Market Outlook


Early January is almost always a tricky time as big investors rotate and reposition their portfolios, leading to lots of crosscurrents and volatility. We saw some of that today and won’t be surprised to see more gyrations in the days ahead. Thus, we’re focusing mostly on the bigger picture, and on that front, the trend remains up, and we’re seeing a lot of pullback resumption set-ups (mostly from cyclical and financial stocks) and base-breakout set-ups (among some growth-oriented stocks). Now’s not the time to chase a stock’s every tick higher or lower, but you should remain bullish, and have a list of set-ups ready should the buying pressures resume after the modest late-December market retreat. We’re leaving our Market Monitor at a level 8 out of 10.

This week’s list has many stocks that have formed the aforementioned set-ups—should they resume their uptrends, many could have nice runs. For our Top Pick, we’re going with Micron Technology (MU), which gapped up strongly on earnings two weeks ago before pulling back. Dips look buyable to us.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Arista Networks (ANET)	0.00	95-98	90-92
Dave & Buster’s (PLAY)	57.01	54-56.5	51-52
HD Supply Holdings, Inc. (HDS)	0.00	41-43	37.5-38.5
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU)	43.31	21.5-23	19.5-20
Nabors Industries (NBR)	0.00	16-17	14.5-15
Oasis Petroleum (OAS)	12.57	14.5-16	13-13.5
Quanta Services (PWR)	91.45	34-36	31.5-32.5
Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI)	0.00	76-78	71-72
United States Steel Corporation (X)	0.00	31.5-33	29.5-30.5
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WCG)	271.83	135-138	127-129

So far, earnings season is showing that investor expectations have become overly negative. Results from banks indicate that consumer activity remains healthy even as domestic economic growth stalls.

“Markets are never wrong, only opinions are.” – Jesse Livermore

Few quotes related to investing have stuck with me more than that one.

Jesse Livermore, of course, is an investment legend who, in the early 20^th century, pioneered day trading and who was the basis of the best-selling Edwin Lefevre book, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator – considered by many to be the investing Bible. Many of his words are relevant to today’s market, nearly 85 years after his death. And I think the above quote is as evergreen as any and is important to remember in bull markets like this one.

This month we’re jumping back into the pure-play software space with an up and coming SaaS company that has remained under the radar since going public in December, just a few months before the market tanked.

It specializes in social media management solutions, which are increasingly important as the trend toward digital transformation strategies gets stronger. Organizations increasingly recognize they must market to consumers through social networks.



Revenue growth is hovering around 30% and first profits are still a couple years away, meaning we’re still early to the table.



All the details are inside this month’s Issue. Enjoy!

This month we’re jumping into a company that specializes in precision medicine for cancer.



It has developed a sequencing platform that is able to analyze over 20,000 genes, far more than most competitor solutions. Even better, this platform allows analysis of both tissue biopsies and liquid biopsies.



Ultimately, the company is going after a roughly $40 billion market. Yet its market cap is a mere $1 billion today.



This company is still unknown, but that’s likely to change as it brings new products to market and continues to transform the market for personalized cancer vaccines and next-gen cancer immunotherapies.



All the details are inside. Enjoy!

My modus operandi when writing the monthly version of the Cabot Turnaround Letter is to focus solely on a single stock when making a purchase recommendation. And in keeping with that spirit, I’ll be doing the same in this month’s edition of the newsletter. But I will also highlight two additional stocks with what I see as having excellent mid-to-long-term turnaround potential.

In uncertain times like these, it’s only natural that defensive-minded investors are gravitating to healthcare stocks. After all, this space is characterized by consistent demand for essential products and services that millions rely on, regardless of the state of the economy. (Additionally, many of the companies in this category offer dividends that can be considered quite attractive during market sell-offs.)


While the sector itself has only lately returned to favor, a number of consumer-facing healthcare companies remain out of Wall Street’s good graces and under the public’s radar—including some which provide critical staple products for the everyday needs of consumers.

One of those companies is today’s turnaround recommendation.