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The action of high-growth stocks continues to be sloppy despite the strong performance of most underlying businesses.

To help ease our portfolio thorough this period I’ve been evaluating companies with exposure to the reopening economy, and I think I’ve nailed it.



Today’s stock is an online retailer serving younger generations. These consumers should be among the most active spenders as the world opens up again. And this up-and-coming retailer should be a major beneficiary.



Enjoy!

The shift from Wednesday’s pullback to today’s nice market bounce is just par for the course as investors scramble to figure out the fallout from alarming headlines and conflicting predictions. It’s not an easy market to navigate, and the portfolio is dealing with it by holding a heavy (50%) cash position and cutting back on most buying. But we’re still finding attractive stocks for our watch list, and will be ready when we finally get a green light from the Cabot Emerging Markets Timer.

On the one hand, emerging market stocks are extending their bottom-building structure. On the other hand, there aren’t many stocks making huge, “buy me!” runs. But on balance, the news is hopeful, as the October low for EM stocks is proving durable despite continuing trade-war talks and Brexit suspense. There are plenty of hopeful signs, but they haven’t revealed a change of heart on investors part. Read on for some good news and the return of an old friend to the portfolio.

You may have noticed that last week when Nvidia (NDVA) announced its earnings, its stock rose 16% while Explorer recommendation Super Micro Computer (SMCI) went up 32%.

This is consistent with my view that Super Micro is a leveraged bet on artificial intelligence (AI), and I expect this will also be the case when Nvidia’s stock price moves the other way. Nvidia is now priced at an incredible 32 times trailing annual sales and has a larger market cap than Germany’s entire blue-chip DAX index. Super Micro has already tripled in 2024 so consider taking partial profits. Remember, J.P. Morgan allegedly stated that he made his greatest profits by selling too soon.

Inflation appears stuck at a much higher level than acceptable for the Federal Reserve so lower interest rates are on pause. Gold is one beneficiary.

This means that some high-flyer tech stocks may be vulnerable. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks remain near all-time highs.

Fortunately, we have exposure to both gold and Japan in the Explorer portfolio, and today we add to that exposure.

Although markets have stumbled a bit out of the gate, investors looking to see the S&P 500 build on the 11% advance in the final quarter of 2023 may not have long to wait. U.S. companies are due to start reporting results next week, with the big banks leading the way.

An election year like 2024 with a sitting president running is historically a bullish scenario for U.S. stocks. Since 1949, the S&P 500 is averaging a gain of nearly 13% in those election years, per the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

So let’s kick off the year by adding another aggressive growth stock.

In today’s note, we discuss the reasons why it’s a good time to exit our (mostly) profitable holdings in Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), Nokia (NOK), Tyson Foods (TSN) and Zillow (Z).

We’re adding two new stocks to the portfolio, providing us with exposure to the booming software and utilities sectors.

We’ll also discuss some catalysts for three stocks across three different sectors in what look to be powerful intermediate-term turnarounds.

In today’s note, we discuss the recent earnings reports from Foot Locker (FL), along with our decision to completely exit our position in the stock and take profits. We also discuss the latest addition to the portfolio in the form of Zillow (Z).

In today’s note, we discuss a number of earnings results and new developments for several of our portfolio positions, including Alcoa (AA), Brookfield Wealth Solutions (BNT), Intel (INTC) and Starbucks (SBUX).


The broad market outlook remains bullish for the rest of this year and early next year, but with the possibility for weakness to emerge heading further into 2025.