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A few nights ago, as I found myself sitting at a dinner table with a group of strangers, by way of making conversation (and doing research) I asked, “What do you think will happen with the real estate market?” Their answers: “It’ll come back” and “We’ve been here before.” Not wanting to be a wet blanket, I didn’t disagree. But I think they’re wrong. I think there’s a lot more downside ahead, and that getting there will take much longer than most people imagine today.

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act), which has Democratic Presidential candidate and former prosecutor Kamala Harris as one of its sponsors.

The potential for an accelerated timetable for the Fed to raise interest rates and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine situation led to volatility this week. As always, other events and news also moved stocks. In particular, Sea (SE), after bouncing back the previous two weeks, was off sharply on Monday following reports that India has banned its popular mobile hit “Free Fire”. The stock has since recovered half of this pullback to close Wednesday trading at 141.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain cautious, though remain flexible. The market’s initial bounce this week was good to see but it didn’t offset the recent weakness, and today’s Meta-inspired selloff didn’t help the cause. All told, our Cabot Tides remain negative, and most growth stocks are still in rough intermediate-term shape—though the long-term picture is still positive. After selling the rest of our Arista (ANET) position last Friday, our cash position is 44%—we’ll sit tight tonight with our remaining names and our cash and see how earnings season continues to play out.

This week’s note includes our comments on earnings from Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC). Next Thursday, we get earnings from Nokia (NOK). The deluge starts the following week with eight companies scheduled to report.

The good news is that four weeks of upside action has brought a new buy signal from Cabot’s intermediate-term market timing indicator. But this doesn’t mean you can jump in with both feet yet; there’s still reason for caution.

One way Cabot Stock of the Week exercises caution is by diversifying widely, not only among industries but also among investment strategies. Today’s recommendation, a big undervalued robotics company in Japan, is an excellent example.



As for the rest of the portfolio, it’s acting well and thus the only change today is a downgrade of one stock—which has got a bit high—from buy to hold.



Full details in the issue.

Note: To accommodate our Thanksgiving week schedule, there will be no issue of Cabot Stock of the Week published next week. The next issue will be published November 28.

As for today, the broad market’s long-term trend remains up, and today my recommendation is an undervalued stock recommended by Azmath Rahiman, chief analyst of Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Investor.

Last week’s recommendation, Virgin Galactic (SPCE), took off like a rocket and this week we go underground to recommend a premier global company that provides the backbone for future-oriented technologies such as green energy and electric vehicles.

Looking at the big picture impacting global stocks, U.S.-China haggling continues but the NAFTA redo looks like a done deal as we head into the end-of-year rush. As a result, our Emerging Markets Timer (EEM) moved into a stronger bullish position, putting some distance between its 25- and 50-day averages as it moves back towards 44.

As many analysts focus on inflation and the job market, they miss that earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 for the first quarter now look to be up 5.2% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. Since profits and profit growth are the lifeblood of an economy and stock market, it pays to watch them closely.

For this week’s new idea, we go to a Canadian-based company focused on a different resource and technology crucial to North America and beyond.

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and signaled it is open to cutting later this year, especially if economic growth and employment slow in an election year. Big tech earnings so far are a mixed bag and below elevated expectations.

But cybersecurity companies have been resilient due to ever-growing demand. And today, we add a familiar cybersecurity name to the Explorer portfolio.

Today’s stock is a name you’ll know. The company was born in the early days of the internet and today it’s all grown up—a major player in the world of financial transactions.

Explorer stocks had a good week, but I wanted to highlight that recently, Warren Buffett sold almost 400 million of Apple (AAPL) stock during the second quarter. The Oracle of Omaha sold about 390 million shares of Apple stock, reducing Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership to roughly 400 million shares.

Granted, Berkshire booked some giant investment gains during the second quarter, with Apple accounting for a big share of those winnings. This is nothing to sneeze at, but why did Buffett and company decide to sell the shares, thereby missing out on some big capital gains? Forbes notes that Apple’s average closing price in the second quarter was 186, which is well below the 226 at which the stock closed on August 20.

The rally since the election continues as Bitcoin reached $90,000 for the first time. Tesla (TSLA) has climbed more than 40%, and the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which tracks shares of some of the nation’s largest lenders, is surging.

Dutch Bros (BROS) shares jumped 36% this week as it beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines while offering improved guidance for the remainder of 2024. Sea Limited (SE) soared 10.3% as the Singapore-based company reported overall net income that beat estimates at $153.3 million, with a better-than-projected 31% rise in revenue for the September quarter.

While I don’t like putting on bullish positions in the hours, or even days, after such a dramatic selloff, there are many ways you can take advantage of this volatility using options.

Sprout Social (SPT) reported a terrific Q4 yesterday and offered above-consensus guidance for 2022. Despite the good results and outlook, we’re going to sell another one-quarter position to take our stake down to one half today. The bottom line is it continues to be a challenging environment for pure growth stocks, and we need to continue to adapt to the times.

Cloudflare (NET) reported Q4 results yesterday that surpassed expectations. Revenue was up 54% to $193.6 million while adjusted EPS came in at $0.01. As compared to some other software stocks that have beat expectations, Cloudflare reinvested the surplus cash in growth initiatives, so it didn’t flow to the bottom line.