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Welcome to the fourth installment about my recent 17-day, 4,218-mile road trip to and through the American Midwest and back—which I’m presenting not chronologically but thematically. Today’s theme is wine—American wine—with a focus on the grapes that originated in America.

I scanned my database to find six stocks with the right credentials to perform very well in 2015.

Broadly speaking, the market has been sketchy. Small caps have been trending down since early October, and the pace of the decline accelerated over the past week. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t surprising. The September advance was incredibly strong, and a pull-back to the small cap index’s 50-day line isn’t remotely alarming.

With the bulls and bears continuing to fight it out in the growth arena, we’re moving into a more cyclical industry with today’s addition.

The company is a leading maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This industry is growing rapidly as the current innovation wave requires smaller, faster and more durable chips.



Making those chips at scale can only be done with specialized measurement and process control equipment. Which is exactly what this company specializes in.



Enjoy!

Facing the usual uncertainty and mixed earnings reports, stocks were a bit choppy this week, prompting the Explorer to exit two positions (details inside). Conversely, Novonix (NVNXF) is up over 100% since August and Cloudflare (NET) continues its strong upward trend. This week we highlight the supply-chain chaos and recommend a new company that’s helping its clients untangle and profit from the disruption.

In a market facing inflation, a Taiwan potential takeover, rising oil prices, Explorer stocks had a good week, especially Cloudfare (NET), up twenty points for the week and Sea (SE) is back up to 350, up 7% yesterday. We need to remain confident and my pick today is a niche player in corporate aviation markets.

Today’s note includes earnings updates, ratings changes, the podcast and the Catalyst Report.

Today’s note includes earnings updates and the podcast.

Today’s note includes ratings changes, earnings updates on six companies and the podcast.

Right now, keep new positions small and don’t get fooled into thinking we’re on a one-way conveyor belt higher. If this bull market is to stay healthy and continue, we’ll need to see a pause in leading stocks and some catch up performance from areas of the market that haven’t done much lately.

In the fourth quarter of 2018 it felt like we all finally succumbed to some festering illness that landed us in the intensive care unit. Thus far, the beginning of 2019 has the feeling of a trip home from the hospital and the beginning of the healing process.

I recently had the opportunity to talk to one of ours editors who you don’t hear from regularly in Cabot Wealth Advisory, Thomas Garrity, editor of Cabot Small-Cap Confidential. Today I’ve got a Q&A to share with you about why Tom prefers to invest in small-caps, what he thinks the best investment strategy is now and in the long-term. I hope you enjoy it! (Interesting side note: The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks pushed above the 50-day moving average on Wednesday--the first time since the market collapse began in September.)

We’re putting our mining helmets back on today and taking a position in a speculative micro-cap gold and copper exploration company that’s just about to get the drills turning.

This type of stock is intended to scratch the speculator’s itch. It’s not suitable for investing money that you need. That said, if things go well – and I think there’s a good chance they will – the returns could be spectacular.

But please, go in with eyes wide open. This is supposed to be fun.

Sideways is a good thing. The market had a huge recovery from the pandemic and really soared between November and May. After such a rapid move higher in a short amount of time, a correction would be normal.