Search

Friday’s big surge upward—200 points for the Dow—was a clear bullish sign, a reminder that there’s lots of cash sitting on the sidelines waiting for a reason to get back into the market, and a reminder that when those billions of dollars eventually do find their way back into stocks, prices will skyrocket! Yet it’s been hard for the market to maintain a strong uptrend as the tug-of-war between stocks and bonds continues. And it’s not the yields keeping people in bonds these days, it’s simply fear. Thus our Market Monitor remains in the neutral zone—which means while it’s fine to target some attractive situations, you should keep some cash in reserve until the broad market is more supportive, and you should continue to practice risk management. That means buying on dips, not at new highs. It means taking some profits off the table when they come easily. And it means cutting losses short when things go against you.

We’re still very enthusiastic about the homebuilding sector, and our Editor’s Choice this week is Ryland, a homebuilder that’s appeared here this year twice before and has great potential to keep on climbing. Also attractive are companies in fertilizer, energy, electronic health records and more. Enjoy the issue and enjoy the summer!

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Agrium (AGU)	0.00	87-90	-
Athenahealth (ATHN)	0.00	78-80	-
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG)	0.00	38-41	-
CLGX (CLGX)	0.00	19-20	-
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC)	0.00	43-46	-
Ryland (RYL)	0.00	23-26	-
Spirit Airlines (SAVE)	57.03	21-23	-
TripAdvisor (TRIP)	55.14	42-44	-
Weyerhaeuser (WY)	0.00	22.5-23	-
Zillow (Z)	76.64	39-41	-

Eternal vigilance is the price of investment success. For us, that means continually adapting our portfolio so that it is best positioned to benefit from the stocks that can do well in today’s market.

Hopefully, you took some profits last week as I advised. It’s been a rough week since then, but it wasn’t unexpected. The well-publicized legalization day in Canada was exactly the type of event that often accompanies market tops.

Of course, it’s not just the marijuana stocks that have been sinking; the broad stock market is trending down as well.

But have no fear! The key to successful investing in this sector is to hold cash when the environment is against you, and to invest in great growth companies when trends are positive, and to take partial profits—as we did last week—when stocks get frothy.

This week’s featured stock is a fast-growing Chinese stock that dominates its mass-market business segment. Conservative investors will probably want to give it a pass, but risk-takers can jump on board. It has great growth potential!

A good way to invest in global growth is to own real estate in different parts of the world. And global REITs are a hassle-free way to do it.

These rules are the foundation of the Cabot Market Letter investment philosophy.

The market is still serving up its fair share of surprises, both to the upside and to the downside. We’ve experienced a few of both in our portfolio, and over the last two weeks, we’ve stepped aside from three stocks (my rationale was detailed in the Special Bulletins). This week, two of our stocks reported, and I moved one to Sell.

Market volatility has picked up. Stocks are popping and dropping all over the place. In other words, welcome to the thick of earnings season.

he iShares EM Fund (EEM) has dropped decisively below its 25- and 50-day moving averages, which returns the Emerging Markets Timer to a negative reading. We take the Timer’s advice seriously, so we are shifting a couple of stocks to Hold ratings, but because the damage to the portfolio thus far has been minimal, we don’t have any sells tonight.

The stock market’s advance slowed a little this week, but the major indexes are still at all-time highs. Strangely enough, after declining for most of September, utilities have been one of the best-performing sectors over the past five days. Technology and real estate are also outperforming.

I’ve just returned from a visit to Philadelphia that was enriched by the work of two philanthropists.

A decade removed from the subprime mortgage crisis, the makings of another housing crash appear much closer than you think. Here’s why.

The Russell indexes just added some new names. Often those are some of the best small cap stocks to buy. Here are a few that I like.

The two best small-cap medical device stocks are BioTelemetry (BEAT) and iRhythm (IRTC). Which one is better? You might not have to choose.

Grocery stocks are getting crushed after last week’s Amazon-Whole Foods mega-deal. But restaurant stocks are thriving. And these seven even pay dividends!