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In today’s note, we discuss pertinent developments for some of the stocks in the portfolio, including Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Alcoa (AA), Atlassian (TEAM), Centuri Holdings (CTRI), SLB Ltd. (SLB) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Gold miner Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) is well positioned in the ongoing tariff war to benefit from increasing safe-haven gold demand.

Japan is back as a place to invest some capital for a number of reasons.

Japanese retail investors have cash positions above 50% versus about 15% for Americans.

Japanese corporates have long been criticized for hoarding cash on their balance sheets and low capital expenditures due to cross-shareholdings with sister companies. But over the past 12 months, share buybacks are on track to increase 96% year-over-year, and the reduction in cross-shareholdings has increased by 75% in the last fiscal year.

All this leads us to consider today a second Japanese stock as an Explorer recommendation.

In today’s note, we discuss pertinent developments for some of the stocks in the portfolio, including Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Dollar Tree (DLTR), GE Aerospace (GE), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT), Intel (INTC), Paramount Global (PARA), SLB Ltd. (SLB) and UiPath (PATH).

Agnico Eagle (AEM) is poised to benefit from a major change in the balance of global reserve assets.

“Only the paranoid survive.” -Andy Grove

Nvidia (NVDA) met high expectations yesterday for the July quarter, hitting $46.7 billion in revenue, up 56% from the year-earlier period. However, it cautioned that third-quarter revenue growth will not be as impressive, disappointing analysts and investors.

Explorer stocks did not disappoint this week, with many of our positions posting solid gains. Coeur Mining (CDE) shares continue to outperform for us, up 8.9% this week, and Dutch Bros (BROS) shares were up a stellar 16.3%.

The S&P 600 Small Cap Index bounced off rock-solid support at the 820 level late last week, and over the last few sessions has migrated back to its 50-day moving average line at around 837.

Small caps have had a volatile week, which we can blame on the CPI inflation report (Tuesday) and subsequent move in interest rates. That all said, if you just woke up from a two-week nap you wouldn’t notice much at all at the small-cap index level. It’s actually a touch higher than it was on January 30 and currently challenging the levels seen last Friday (pre-CPI report).

That’s all a long-winded way of saying the market has digested the CPI report and determined (for now) that one slightly-higher-than-expected reading doesn’t make a trend. It’s helped that a few Fed officials have said the same.

The market bounced back very nicely from the previous week’s losses, ahead of the big Federal Reserve announcement this week. By week’s end the S&P 500 had rallied 3.2%, the Dow added 1.9%, and the Nasdaq rebounded 4.9%.

The market bounced back very nicely from the previous week’s losses, ahead of the big Federal Reserve announcement this week. By week’s end the S&P 500 had rallied 3.2%, the Dow added 1.9%, and the Nasdaq rebounded 4.9%.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain defensive. The market has gotten off its duff somewhat this week, but as seen the past couple of weeks, there’s still plenty of selling and news-driven action out there. We do think it’s possible a repair process has begun, but right now, the trends of the major indexes and most stocks are pointed down, so we continue to advise a defensive stance. We’ll again stand pat tonight with our four small-ish positions and our big cash position, though we’ll be on the horn if we have any changes (including possibly re-jiggering the portfolio a bit) in the days ahead.

As expected, the Fed cut interest rates for the third time this year on Wednesday, but officials remain divided over the future and signaled that cuts next year are likely to be limited.

Two Explorer stocks stand out. Those are Banco Santander (SAN), up 153% so far this year so I recommend taking partial profits if you have not already done so. And there’s Coeur Mining (CDE), whose shares that are now up 179% so far in 2025.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain cautious. We have seen a couple of rays of light among the growth arena of late, though today’s wobbles (both in the market and in many stocks still being rejected at key levels) keep our growth measures pointed sideways to down. We’d like to put some money to work (both in some current holdings and some new names), and we could do so in the very near future if today ends up being the final shakeout to the Nasdaq’s three-month consolidation. But with the sell-on-strength pattern still with us for growth stocks, we’ll stand pat for the moment and look to see if more growth names can break free of the up-and-down action.

Small caps continue to underperform large caps in 2025.

The S&P 600 is up a mere 3.6% year to date, trailing the S&P 500’s 16.7% gain by roughly 13 percentage points.

The gap closes meaningfully if we strip out megacaps’ strong performance and compare the S&P 600 with the S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which is up “just” 10.3%.