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Third-quarter earnings season is only days away. PepsiCo (PEP) will kick off the season on Tuesday, October 10. The “official” start is generally considered to be on Friday, October 13, when major financials like recommended stock Citigroup (C), as well as JPMorgan (JPM), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and Blackrock (BLK) report their results. For the S&P 500 members, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the busiest, as 20-50 companies report on each of those days. While weekends are almost cleanly bereft of reports, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B) provides a stand-out exception (estimated to report on November 4).

It’s been widely noted that the stock market’s sloppy start to 2024 is among the worst in a decade, or longer. Traders and TV commentators carry on about how the first trading day, or week, or month, sets the tone for the entire year. “How goes January, so goes the year” is a frequently bandied saying. It’s enough to make an investor toss in the towel and wait until 2025.

The longer I am in the investing world, the less I listen to this banter. It all sounds great, and maybe there are some years in which these ultra-short-term trends-as-predictors pan out, but they are so unreliable that they are worthless at best. Even if they had a 100% accuracy rate, why make a bet that this perfect record will continue?

Today’s recommendation is a medical device company whose one product—an insulin delivery system for diabetics—is growing market share rapidly.

When the markets are strong and giving us buy signals, a a few set of worries shows up.

This note includes our review of earnings from Dril-Quip (DRQ), General Electric (GE), Holcim (HCMLY), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), Lamb Weston Holdings (LW), M/I Homes (MHO), Newell Brands (NWL), Polaris (PII), Shell plc (SHEL) and Xerox Holdings (XRX).

There were no ratings or price target changes this week.

We’ve had a fierce six-day selloff, but the market has managed to find support and is rebounding this week. But I still advise caution as things are still dicey. Most of the positions in our portfolio are on Hold, but we’re adding one more to that list and selling half of one our weaker positions.

Anybody that’s done a drive with kids has faced this question more times than they’d like to recall. We’re facing the same question now with respect to the market’s retreat as we look for some stability.

This week’s update of Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor is focused on portfolio stocks that are being affected by recent news or upcoming earnings reports. Next week’s September issue will include all portfolio stocks, with at least one new portfolio addition.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce have taken a decidedly different approach to U.S. participation in international trade since November 2016. I realize that international trade can be somewhat of a dry topic, but since these decisions are affecting the bottom line in U.S. industry, stock market opportunities are unfolding before us.

Here’s how I handle my personal stock portfolio when I’m expecting a market correction. When I sell a stock, I put part of the capital in the money market fund, and I reinvest part of the capital into an attractive stock opportunity.

As we leave behind last week’s market lows—as well as the peak fears of tariff wars—it remains critically important to focus on the action of the market itself, and not be swayed by the news of the day. Which brings me to today’s recommendation, a fast-growing company with a revolutionary product whose stock hit new highs recently and is primed to do so again. You’ll find full details in the issue.

I wrote to you recently about upcoming changes in the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), which classifies stocks into 11 sectors and dozens of industries, and is commonly used in professional portfolio management as a guideline to portfolio diversity.

Hindenburg Research released a short report on Roblox (RBLX) stock that, while certainly well-researched, fails to see the forest for the trees.

While nearly dormant last year, the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) is starting to warm up. Mediocre or obscure companies like Pixie Dust Technologies (PXDT) and BioNexus (BGLC) inspired no one with their IPOs earlier this year. Shares of Vietnamese electric car marker VinFast Auto (VFS) surged over 300%, to $90, following their recent deal at $22, but have now collapsed to about $16 as the shares were subjected to all of the market manipulations that one would expect from an exceptionally thinly traded, poorly executed offering. Even Oddity (ODD), up about 6% from its issue price, left much to be desired.

As interest rates were roiling the stock market last year, it seemed like the long bull market was over. By mid-October, the S&P 500 had slid 27% from year-end 2021. Since then, however, stocks have surged. Today, the S&P 500 is 30% higher than that Halloween-month nadir. And, the index is only 5% away from reaching its prior all-time high. Clearly, the bear market has ended.

For nearly 40% of stocks in the index, their stock prices are now above their year-end 2021 level. It’s not just mega-cap tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA), which is now 51% higher, or Apple (AAPL), up 8%, or Microsoft (MSFT), up 2%. More prosaic stocks like Occidental Petroleum (OXY), up 110%, Cardinal Health (CAH), up 81% and Lamb Weston (LW) up 78%, have rebounded sharply, as well

First Solar was one of our biggest winners ever back in 2007 to 2008, but honestly, we’ve never found much to get excited about from the company in recent years.

A couple of weeks ago we discussed the likelihood that the “all things AI” momentum trade would sooner or later lose luster. I called into question the tenacity of some of 2025’s top-performing tech stocks while also speculating that some of this year’s wayside laggards would launch a return to prominence in the coming months.

Over the past few weeks, the market has given us a bunch of presents—and now the market is trying to take some of our presents away. But this should come as no surprise. The only “surprise” is what excuse the media finds to pin the blame on, whether it’s China or Russia or Italy or interest rates or Trump or simply an economy that’s too good to last.
I’ll leave the finger-pointing to someone else. Instead, I’ll keep picking high-potential stocks and managing the portfolio to maximize gain and minimize risk.