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It was another slippery week for the market as the sector rotation and trader narratives seemed to swing violently day-to-day. By week’s end the S&P 500 and Dow were marginally lower, while the Nasdaq fell 0.76%.

*Note: Your next issue of Cabot Options Trader will arrive next Tuesday, February 17 due to the market holiday next Monday, February 16 in observance of Presidents’ Day.

Despite a mid-week tech-led sell-off that dragged the broad markets lower, investors clawed back lost ground on Friday on a rebound in semiconductors, AI-related optimism and stabilization in risk assets like bitcoin. By week’s end the S&P 500 had lost a mere 0.1%, the Dow actually closed at a new all-time high above 50,000, and the Nasdaq had fallen 1.8%.

In such an environment it’s easy to assume the worst and miss the flipside of the equation – great companies trading at prices that just a month ago we would have considered incredible. Market volatility and uncertainty are creating great opportunities.

Despite a couple concerning days to start the week, the bulls took control on Thursday and Friday as tech titan Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings blowout triggered a “risk-on” bull run.

Over the past seven years, I’ve been running a series titled, “10 Stocks to Buy & Hold Forever.”

The broad market pulled back sharply this week, dragging the S&P 500 through the 2,100 level once again. Today’s Fed meeting, the shooting in Orlando over the weekend and the upcoming Brexit vote are all contributing to a heightened sense of uncertainty and a “risk-off” mood on Wall Street.

Earnings update from a company that recently reported and comments on other recommended stocks. And, an on-the-ground view of globalization.

The market has been jumping around lately as it digests the Fed’s announcement last week that it expects to hold interest rates steady until 2020 (and just one hike in that year) and would stop shrinking its balance sheet later in 2019.

This week, we comment on earnings from Dow (DOW), General Electric (GE), Nokia (NOK) and Xerox Holdings (XRX). Next week brings reports from Vodafone (VOD), Polaris Industries (PII), M/I Homes (MHO), Meta Platforms (META), Western Digital (WDC) and Janus Henderson Group (JHG).


We also include the Catalyst Report and a summary of the February edition of the Cabot Turnaround Letter, which was published on Wednesday.

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.

I have no idea if the biotech sector is near a bottom, but based on history, it would seem that we’re within 10% or so of that mark. The greatest risk seems to be that the binary outcome possibilities for developmental-stage biotech stocks (either fail or succeed) don’t mesh with investors’ risk appetite right now.

What is Dogecoin? It’s a joke, and it could make you rich. Or it might just be a fun and whimsical investment.

When to Start Taking Social Security

Still Plenty of Hot IPOs

Think Credit Cards to Get Income

Learning How to Make Money in Education Stocks

These Beer Stocks are Anything But Flat

Timing Isn’t Everything

Hot Market Sectors for Investors

Expert Tips for Buying Low When the Market is Off

Investing for the Future: Think Global

Invest Like a Hedge Fund

REIT Investing for Retirement

Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Ex-Dividend Dates

Cannabis stocks sold off after President Trump’s Executive Order on rescheduling, some of the best news in decades. Here are seven reasons they’re still a buy.

Cannabis investors have turned into bored apes.

After President Donald Trump said on August 11 he’d get around to cannabis reform “in a few weeks,” cannabis speculators concluded making money was as simple as pulling out a calendar, counting forward three weeks, and buying ahead of the expected big pop on that date – which was in early September.

Halloween was Monday, but it seems like the stock market has been playing tricks on investors all year.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Turnaround Letter. We hope you enjoy reading the September 2023 issue.

The attention of most investors, commentators and analysts has been on the winners, notably the Magnificent Seven, driving this year’s stock market rally. As contrarians, we are fine with letting a few overpriced trendy stocks capture the spotlight. One place that draws our attention is the other end of the spectrum – those with the worst performance. While most of these stocks fully deserve the market’s dour judgment, some have favorable changes underway. We look into four large and mid-cap stocks that fit this description and one that does not. We also discuss a tactic to help improve one’s success in investing in out-of-favor stocks.

Our feature recommendation this month is Advance Auto Parts (AAP), one of the four major auto parts retailers. The shares have fallen sharply out of favor, but a comprehensive and much-needed overhaul is now starting.

We also include our recent Sell recommendations: Toshiba (TOSYY), Holcim AG (HCMLY), First Horizon (FHN) and ESAB Corporation (ESAB), and our suspension of our rating of shares of Kopin Corporation (KOPN).

Most of the stocks in our Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio are behaving quite well; two stocks streaked to new highs in the last few days. I have no changes to the portfolio this week.