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The failure of FTX wasn’t a failure of cryptocurrencies, it was just (per the unsealed indictment) fraud. But there are still lessons to be learned, whether you love crypto or hate it.

Today’s bargain is a little-known stock in the fast-growing industry of marijuana farming, production and distribution, which recently was selling at a discount of more than 50% from its recent high. It’s rebounded a bit since then, but is trading calmly, and I think this is a decent entry point.

The good news is that we have a new intermediate-term market-timing buy signal. The bad news is that our long-term market-timing indicator remains negative—and that markets as a whole remain in disarray, with no clear leaders.
Thus, some caution is still warranted, at least until the end of the year, as tax-selling forces will hold some stocks down.
But today’s recommendation is not one of those. Instead, it’s a little-known biotechnology stocks with big connections and great growth prospects.

Despite a hiccup in the past couple of days from Chinese stocks, the U.S. market and the emerging markets continue to outpace their moving averages by comfortable margins. In today\'s issue, I talk about how little profit taking in a couple of our strongest stocks can protect your portfolio while maintaining your exposure.

While the Cabot Emerging Markets Timer continues to flash a green light, there’s no doubt that buyers and sellers are locked in a battle right now, as the MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has been heading sideways for 15 sessions. In response, we’re doing a bit of house-cleaning in the portfolio.

Stock market trends last longer than anyone expects.

That was the oft-repeated adage of my former boss, Cabot legend Tim Lutts. And he was right. For all the tsk-tsking about the current bull market being long in the tooth, it’s actually tied for the shortest bull market (21 months) in history at the moment, according to data from Ryan Detrick of Carson Research Group. The average bull market lasts 61 months – nearly three times the length of the current one!

The market has had some wobbles after a strong three-week run, and finding good buy points and keeping an eye on earnings reports remains vital. But overall, most of the evidence remains bullish, so we do, too. Most of the stocks we own are acting well, though we’re still wading through earnings season and will react if need be. In the meantime, we’re still aiming to add exposure, and are buying a half-sized position in an old friend tomorrow.

While momentum in many of 2025’s leading growth and AI names has waned, there are many “new” groups of stocks acting very well. This month’s issue focuses on these companies, which might offer somewhat less top-line growth but still significant upside share price potential.

This month’s issue tilts toward industrial-type names, like companies that make filters and specialized bearings for mission-critical equipment, power converters for data centers and medical imaging devices, and protection equipment for nuclear facilities. We also have a cruise line operator that’s crushing it.

Enjoy!

As suggested by the name, most of the investments recommended in the Dividend Digest are dividend-paying stocks. They’re companies like Procter & Gamble (PG, yields about 3%), Kellog (K, yields a little over 3%) and Diebold (DBD, yields just under 3%) that have decided the best thing to do with...

We’re letting go of Equifax (EFX) today, booking a nice profit, and reducing our exposure to Home Depot (HD) by half. We also sold Amgen (AMGN) on Monday, after health care industry stocks suffered a major selloff. Drug companies and distributors are anticipating even more pressure to rein in drug prices next year.

Today’s new addition is a semiconductor company. It designs products that are the heartbeat of digital technologies. Its content is found in electric vehicles, datacenters, IoT devices, airplanes, mobile devices and more. It is benefitting from surging demand from Apple (AAPL) products, from which it generated 40% of revenue in 2020. While the market cap is a little larger than we typically look for, the opportunity warrants the exception at this time.

Don’t let loyalty or affection cloud your judgment when investing in stocks.

There’s an old saying that a bull market climbs a wall of worry, and today is a perfect example, with many of our stocks hitting new highs despite the widespread fears of coronavirus. Thus I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested.
However, not all our stocks are strong, and this week three in particular have turned too weak to hold any longer. So out they go.


As for the new recommendation, it’s an insurance company (investment company) that pays a dividend but has great prospects for capital gains. Full details in the issue.

Last week, our opening comments chastised the U.S. Government for such profligate spending that the most likely path as forecast by the Congressional Budget Office is for remarkably high and steady budget deficits into the distant future. We hesitated to write such a gloomy note – and didn’t mention that this is perhaps the greatest risk that long-term investors face (making blips like the next Fed rate decision or Amazon’s next earnings report seem irrelevant).

We worried that we were taking a grim outlier perspective after so many others had dismissed the Fitch credit rating downgrade. However, recent articles in The Wall Street Journal and other high-quality media outlets vindicate our math and view. This is little comfort – I wish that I were totally wrong and that my math or outlook was missing some key facts.

GE stock, the Dow Jones Industrial’s oldest member, has been kicked out of the hallowed index. Does that make it untouchable, or a sneaky bargain?

First, a reminder that there will be no Top Ten issue next Monday—it’s one of our two weeks off all year—though we’ll send out a Movers & Shakers update next Friday. Being our last missive of 2024, we want to wish you and yours a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

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As for the market, we’ve seen the Santa Claus rally kick in a bit in recent days—for the week as a whole, most every major index and growth measure is up by 1% to 2% on the week.

The election results and Federal Reserve rate cut were seemingly just what the market was looking for as the S&P 500 rallied 4.7% last week, the Dow added 4.65% and the Nasdaq gained 5.4%.

This week I’m adding American worldwide manufacturing services company Jabil (JBL) to the portfolio.