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My top investment theme for 2018 has to do with a corporate America spending spree thanks to lower tax rates and a sudden influx of cash.

My favorite bank stock to buy today combines both deep value and impressive growth. And the chart shows the stock already has plenty of momentum.

2020 is shaping up to be a year where powerful mega trends dominate the market. These little-known REITs take advantage of two of those big trends.

I’m usually not a fan of cyclical stocks, but they’ve been pretty impressive lately. Does that mean growth stocks will follow suit? These three already are.

The environment remains essentially the same this week, as we have a broad market that continues to struggle, major indexes that are back in intermediate-term downtrends and commodity and defensive stocks about the only two areas that are doing decently. We continue to see secondary signs that are encouraging, including many measures that tell us selling pressures are gradually easing, but as always, we need to see the market and individual stocks prove themselves before changing our stance in any real way. It’s best to remain mostly cautious until the buyers return. Our Market Monitor will remain at a level 5.

Last week was an awful one for growth stocks, many of which had already been sitting well off their highs and then were taken apart as the calendar flipped, with 15% to 20% declines seen in some former leaders last week alone. To be fair, some areas actually acted decently—in our screens this week, it wasn’t hard to find good-looking commodity, semiconductor, financial and industrial stocks—and there are names that may be near good entry points. The trick, though, is that the selling appears to be broadening out: Today saw declines across the board (led again by growth stocks), with even resilient areas getting hit. We never catch falling knives, but in the near term, a bounce wouldn’t shock us, as the selling has beenpunishing and has become very obvious. Still, that’s like picking up nickels in front of a bulldozer—a nibble here or there is fine, but there’s not much to like from an intermediate-term perspective, so caution remains the best stance.

This week’s list contains a bunch of commodity and more reliable performers, a sign that big investors continue to favor steadiness and defense rather than aggressive situations. Our Top Pick is a steady performer with a low valuation and a great cash flow outlook.

There’s not much new to say when it comes to the market—just about all of the primary evidence remains bearish, and interest rates are still in a firm uptrend, too. There are a growing number of secondary measures that are flashing green, effectively saying a solid bounce (and maybe more) should be coming soon. Thus, we’re staying alert and keeping a list of resilient stocks and sectors, but at the risk of repeating ourselves, we have to see the buyers show up for more than a few hours to start thinking investor perception is truly changing for the better. We’re leaving our Market Monitor at a level 4.

This week’s list has more than a few familiar names, including some initial earnings winners. Our Top Pick is a steady performer that also is showing great growth thanks to both of its top-selling brands—and the stock just emerged from nearly three months of chopping lower on its report. Try to buy on dips.

Today’s featured stocks include a new addition to the Growth Portfolio. You’ll also find comparisons between our featured stocks and their peers in the integrated oil, asset management and semiconductor industries.

We look at hundreds of charts every week, and we’ve seen worse environments than this—while high-growth stocks have taken a beating, much of the broad market is at least hanging in there. But the fact is that as long as the intermediate-term trend of the major indexes is pointed down, it’s going to be tough to make much money; the last couple of trading days has reinforced that fact. Thus, while a little buying here or there is fine, especially in resilient groups, less is generally more in this environment—preserving most of your capital and building your watch list are what will pay off down the road.

The good news is that, as earnings season progresses, we’re able to see which stocks have “it,” and which ones are being tossed out by big fund managers. This week’s list has a few recent earnings winners, including our Top Pick, Harley-Davidson (HOG), which just blasted out of a 14-week base on a great quarterly report.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
WABCO Holdings (WBC)	0.00	104-107	97-98
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS)	0.00	39-41	35-36
SunEdison (SUNE)	0.00	18-19	15.5-16
SunPower (SPWR)	12.26	34-35	29-30
Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP)	0.00	102-106	98-100
Matador Resources Company (MTDR)	27.89	26-27	24-24.5
Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG)	0.00	70-72	66-67
Delta Air Lines (DAL)	54.28	35-36.5	33-34
Comstock Resources (CRK)	0.00	25-27	22-23
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG)	0.00	36.5-38	35-35.5

It’s a raging bear market in technology.
But technology has been by far the best performing sector for well over a decade for good reasons. We are in fact in a technological revolution. Technological advances are accelerating. It feeds on itself and is transforming the world. Technology is where there is massive growth and excitement for the future.


Sure, the market might get cranky in the near term. Inflation and higher rates might be all the rage right now. But technology isn’t going away. It’s likely to grow even bigger in the future. The time to buy such stocks is when they are cheap and out of favor.


In this issue, I highlight three existing portfolio positions in the technology sector ready for purchase. All of these stocks sell at compelling valuations with strong growth likely ahead. They are victims of indiscriminate selling in the sector. At some point, hopefully sooner, investors will realize the value that has been created by this year’s market turmoil.

The markets traded sideways through most of April. But since then, the choppiness has returned—along with worries about the uncertainty regarding the debt ceiling, the expiration of the immigration-limiting legislation, and ongoing debate about the possibility of a recession.

Yet, economically speaking, the trends are still healthy. Manufacturing has held up, employment continues to rise, and job openings are still underutilized (as you can tell if you’ve been in a restaurant lately!).

Happy 2024! Here’s hoping the new year can pick up right where the old one left off. There are plenty of reasons to think this year will be good for stocks – the Fed cutting interest rates instead of hiking them, inflation cooling, recession fears fading, etc. But there’s no doubt a few sectors (tech?) are a bit overcooked at the moment, at least in the short term. So we kick off the new year by doing a bit of bargain shopping, starting with the most bargain-basement sector out there: cannabis. We haven’t had much luck trying to buy into strength with cannabis. So today, we instead buy after the sector has been knocked back again, adding the largest holding from Michael Brush’s Cabot Cannabis Investor portfolio.

This year’s strong market has surprised most pundits. Hopefully, the good times last. Anything is possible.

I don’t want to get into the business of trying to predict what the market will do over the rest of the year. Even if you get things right, some stupid headline can come out of nowhere and change all the math. There’s a much better way than market timing.

Buying good stocks cheap is perhaps the best way to assure good returns over time. Different market sectors go in and out of favor all the time. Technology stocks were out of favor at the beginning of this year. No one wanted energy stocks at the beginning of 2021.

You may not think there are a lot of bargains anymore. Sure, it’s a bull market for the indexes. But it is still the darkest days of the bear market in certain places. Defensive stocks in utilities and other sectors are wallowing near the lows of last October while the indexes are whooping it up.

In this issue, I highlight three defensive portfolio positions. These stocks are all selling near 52-week lows and, in some cases, multi-year lows. But operational results at these companies have been as strong as ever. And all these currently out-of-favor stocks have long histories of superstar performance that blows away the returns of the overall market.

Forget the Fed, and inflation, or the velocity of the landing. Buying some of the very best dividend stocks on the market near the lowest valuation at which they ever sell should be a money-making strategy regardless of what happens with all that other stuff.

Hurricane Sandy has the market closed today and possibly tomorrow, but we don’t think that’s going to affect the market’s path all that much. It’s not 2008 out there, but there’s no question the intermediate-term trend is still down, and that earnings season has been generally rough thus far. We flipped our Market Monitor into neutral territory a couple of weeks ago and it remains there today; it’s better to focus on capital preservation these days than capital appreciation, though some new buying here or there is fine—just be sure to keep your positions smaller than normal, and to keep your stops in place.

The good news is that we have seen a decent amount of big-volume support appear in many stocks during earnings, including more than a few commodity and turnaround situations. Our favorite of the week is Packaging Corp. (PKG), a firm with a supposedly boring story ... but with exciting numbers and a beautiful chart.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
3D Systems (DDD)	0.00	40-43	-
ARM Holdings (ARMH)	0.00	30-31	-
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG)	0.00	44.5-46.5	-
HDFC Bank Limited (HDB)	0.00	36-37	-
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ)	0.00	53-56	-
Melco Crown (MPEL)	0.00	13.5-14.5	-
Michael Kors Holdings Limited (KORS)	73.22	53-55	-
Packaging Corp (PKG)	0.00	34.5-36	-
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL)	0.00	32.5-34	-
United Rentals, Inc. (URI)	0.00	37-39.5	-

The market encountered a little wave of selling last week, with a big reversal on Tuesday and some follow-through selling on Thursday. But leading stocks held up well, and in fact, we continue to see more and more stocks joining the party. Sure, it’s not a wild bull market, and yes, there’s always the chance that post-Labor Day some big investors will sell into the recent rally. But there’s also the chance that this under-the-radar advance (most investors still believe the market is languishing) will gather steam! As always, it’s best to go with the evidence, and today, that evidence is bullish.

The expanding leadership can best be seen in our recent Top Tens, including this week’s list, which has all kinds of stocks and sectors. Our favorite of the week is Teradata (TDC), a leading play on the “big data” trend. The stock has stormed back this month and looks ready to assault new-high ground soon.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Chico’s FAS (CHS)	0.00	17-18	-
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (HAIN)	0.00	66-69	-
IACI (IACI)	0.00	50-53	-
JAH (JAH)	0.00	47-49	-
Mellanox Technologies (MLNX)	92.00	109-116	-
NetSuite, Inc. (N)	0.00	54-56	-
Sherwin-Williams (SHW)	526.09	135-141	-
SolarWinds (SWI)	0.00	51.5-54	-
Teradata Corporation (TDC)	0.00	73-76	-
TFM (TFM)	0.00	58-61	-

As expected, the market lost a little steam during the past few days, with buyers showing little interest after stocks ramped higher in previous weeks. Of course, the sellers aren’t showing much muscle, either, resulting in a short-term rotational, choppy environment. What about the long-term? Could the rally have already run its course? Sure, it’s always possible, especially given the stop-start environment since early 2011. But the evidence points to an intermediate-term (and longer-term) uptrend in the indexes and most stocks, so you should remain bullish. That doesn’t mean you can’t book a few partial profits on the way up, but you should also hold on to most of your best performers.

This week’s list has some different names, including a few that have recently strengthened after many months of idling. Our favorite of the week is Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), a former small-cap leader of 2010 and 2011 that consolidated for the better part of a year before breaking out last week.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Computer Sciences (CSC)	0.00	31.5-33	-
Concur Technologies (CNQR)	0.00	72-74.5	-
Google Inc. (GOOG)	0.00	710-730	-
HCA Healthcare (HCA)	137.60	31-32	-
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ)	0.00	54-58	-
Mellanox Technologies (MLNX)	92.00	104-108	-
MCO (MCO)	0.00	44-45	-
Phillips 66 (PSX)	0.00	45-47	-
Barrick Gold (GOLD)	27.20	114-119	-
Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD)	129.66	90-95	-

In today’s issue, we’re adding a unique play on financial markets to the Dividend Growth tier. I also have a write-up on interest rates—the driving force behind many of this month’s sector rotations—at the end of the issue.

The market remains in good health and trending higher, though there is some rotation going on from growth stocks to cyclicals—not unusual for this stage of a bull market.

This week’s recommendation is a big cap global technology stock benefitting from both the spread of communications technology and the company’s dominant position in the global supply chain.



As for the current portfolio, there are no stocks that look like they should be sold, but I must sell one to respect my portfolio cap, and the victim will be Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP), where we have a modest profit.



Full details in the issue.

The market remains in good health and trending higher, and our stocks as a whole have been benefitting thoroughly. However, it’s possible that today we may be seeing the beginning of a correction in the leading Nasdaq glamour stocks. Time will tell.

In the meantime, owning a diversified portfolio of high-potential stocks is the best prescription for your financial health, and today’s featured stock is a good one, a leader in the industry of nationwide homebuilders.



As for the current portfolio, there are no changes, though there is one stock I’m downgrading to hold as I keep a close eye on it.



Full details in the issue.

After a sharp two-week correction that targeted growth stocks in particular (and high-flyers like TSLA and ZM above all), the market may or may not be ready to resume its uptrend. For now, however, I’m keeping it simple and staying heavily invested.
Today’s recommendation is a stock that’s been in the news recently and might be viewed as the next Tesla, but I don’t like that comparison, as there are numerous differences. In any case, it has great potential and I think you’ll like the story.

As for the current portfolio, something’s got to go to keep the portfolio at or below 20 stocks and the victim this week is Zscaler (ZS), which has brought us a fine profit in five months and is now at risk of giving some back.


Full details in the issue.