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All eyes are on Washington this week as markets, which have risen over the last four trading sessions, are counting on lawmakers hammering out another stimulus bill. Our emerging markets market timer remains positive. Sea Limited (SE) shares soared again this week, from 119 to 146, as this stock has quietly become the world’s best-performing large-cap stock, up more than 880% in the past 18 months. Cloudflare (NET) moved ahead along with our strategic metals ETF, and NovoCure (NVCR) reported positive earnings. This week’s issue begins with an overview of the emerging high-tech rivalry between America and China, and highlights a new recommendation of a dominant company at the heart of that rivalry.

In the closing days of 2020, when many people were focused on preparing for the holidays, a small software company went public through a SPAC IPO. The event occurred on December 23.

Part customer relationship management (CRM) platform, part lead generation and marketing platform, the company’s software helps home services companies grow and manage their businesses, and it streamlines the move-in and post-move journey for homeowners.



The stock represents a compelling way for investors to gain exposure to evolving consumer and business trends related to the housing market and home services, especially home inspection, moving, insurance and utility services. After a pandemic-affected 2020 growth could top 60% in 2021, then remain well above 30% for the foreseeable future.



All the details are inside. Enjoy!

All in all, the evidence has continued to show some marginal improvement in recent weeks among individual stocks, plus, some top-down measures (long-term trend, health of the broad market) are looking better … but not quite enough for green lights. All in all, what we’re seeing are steps in the right direction—the market and many individual stocks are doing what they have to in order to repair the damage. But we still need to see continued progress to really extend our line, as little is being sustained on the upside. We’ll again keep our Market Monitor at a level 5.

This week’s list is a hodgepodge of names from different sectors and in different positions in their charts. Our Top Pick is a biotech name that, after many stops and starts, looks to have finally broken out on the upside.

For the past six to nine months the consensus among traders had been that the Federal Reserve would be cutting interest rates this year, and some thought it would be aggressive cutting. However, that narrative may have changed on Thursday as two Fed members noted that the central bank might not cut at all in 2024. This sent shockwaves through the stock market Thursday and Friday.

For the past six to nine months the consensus among traders had been that the Federal Reserve would be cutting interest rates this year, and some thought it would be aggressive cutting. However, that narrative may have changed on Thursday as two Fed members noted that the central bank might not cut at all in 2024. This sent shockwaves through the stock market Thursday and Friday.

There are five growth stocks in our Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor portfolios that offer dividend yields in excess of 5%. That’s crazy! Stocks with rising profits in combination with very large dividend yields are generally uncommon, and can indicate an extreme undervaluation of those companies’ share prices. Dividends can tell you a lot about a company, or about the broader stock market. I cover the dividend topic in more detail in today’s issue.

One of the things I want you to remember, as the market falls lower and lower and bad news about politics and the economy multiplies, is this: Market tops occur when the news is best, and market bottoms occur when the news is worst. Thus, somewhere ahead is an absolutely terrible news day that will mark the market bottom—but I don’t know where.

What I do know is that it will come, and that the bull market that follows it will be very rewarding, particularly for investors who are prepared for the bull—and I hope that’s you.

As we continue marching through earnings season, we’ve had 15 companies report thus far, with only one missing consensus estimates by any appreciable amount.

Precision Castparts (PCP) has grown from a small manufacturer of investment castings for a wide variety of applications to a global market leader producing investment castings, forgings and fasteners for aerospace, power and general industrial markets. In fiscal 2014, aerospace markets accounted for 68% of sales, power markets...

Yesterday, while reviewing my entire Buy List, I noticed that the insurance/annuity and investment stocks appear ready to begin new run-ups, after resting for a few days.

Investment leverage, which in investment terms is just a fancy word for “debt,” can move worlds of money if used properly.

“More investment does not necessarily lead to more innovation.”

“When doing something, experienced people will tell you without hesitation that you should do it this way, but inexperienced people will have to repeatedly explore and think seriously about how to do it, and then find a solution that suits the current actual situation.”

—Liang Wenfeng, founder of the company that created DeepSeek

Most stocks have barely budged the last two and a half years, but the Magnificent Seven and a handful of large-cap artificial intelligence-related leaders have picked up the slack, resulting in a 22% gain in the S&P 500 since the start of 2022. So, we’ve tried to play the hits here at Stock of the Week, adding a couple Mag. Seven names to the portfolio and several AI plays. All of them are up double-digit percentages (and one triple-digit winner!) in little more than a year. Now, with the market’s tides starting to shift away from AI and the Mag. Seven and toward other, long unloved sectors, we pivot toward one of the new favorites – retail – by adding a recent recommendation from Mike Cintolo to his Cabot Growth Investor readers.

Details inside.

The Cabot Global Stocks Explorer portfolio is doing well in 2019 and a number of recommendations have recently surged on the strength of impressive earnings and an improving environment for emerging and international stocks.

Apple (AAPL), as most investors are aware, is now 40% off its high of last year which makes it a bargain in some investors’ books.

In choosing today’s stock, I leaned conservative, and found a dividend-paying stock with strong growth prospects. When I selected it yesterday, the stock was at the bottom of its recent range, but today it shot up to near the top of that range. It’s still a good story, but I’d like it better where it was yesterday.

Markets have been sideways in the past month, affected by wars, upcoming elections, and analysts see-sawing on the possibility of a Fed rate reduction. The Federal Reserve is meeting this week, and predictions for a rate cut this year are all over the board: none, one, or two.

I expect we’ll have more volatility as we near the fall election cycle.

In the meantime, economic stats look good! Manufacturing continues to climb, jobs are still being added at a rapid pace (272,000 vs. the estimate of 190,000), and the unemployment rate—at 3.9%—remains steady.

Most growth leaders and even the Nasdaq itself has been churning since early February, with a lot of ups and downs but not much price progress—but this week has been more encouraging, as the selling pressures have been unable to persist and the major uptrend may be reasserting itself (basically the opposite situation that was seen repeatedly in 2022-2023). That doesn’t mean it’ll be smooth sailing from here, so we’re still being discerning on the buy side, but we’re holding our winners and remaining in an overall optimistic stance.

In the Model Portfolio, we cut bait on one half position earlier this week that was heading in the wrong direction, but we’re holding our strong performers and tonight are putting a chunk of money to work.

This note includes our review of earnings from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B), Elanco Animal Health (ELAN), ESAB Corporation (ESAB), TreeHouse Foods (THS), Viatris (VTRS), Vodafone (VOD) and ZimVie (ZIMV).

There were no ratings changes or price target changes this week.