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The market is testing key levels, as are many indicators, but today’s bounce is a small positive. Today’s bulletin is about Shift4 (FOUR), which cracked support on huge volume two weeks ago and hasn’t been able to bounce at all since. We’re going to sell one-third of our position today and see what earnings brings tomorrow. Our cash position will be around 38% after the sale.

Credo Tech (CRDO) up 10% on Earnings

Most of us never take practical economics classes that dive into everyday finances, how to save, how to invest, or how to plan for the future. If you’ve taken an economics class at all, you probably learned more about supply and demand than you did about setting aside an emergency fund. That means that most of what we “know” about money we learned from our parents or just sort of picked up as we went along. So this month, let’s put to rest some of the most pernicious money myths and unfounded beliefs that keep us from achieving our long-term financial goals.

Our emerging markets timer strengthened this week as the EEM climbed over 44 today, just short of its high for the year.

Even though the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit all-time highs this week, news flow felt a little more negative, and the small-cap indices all moved slightly lower.

When the market turns back up, having the shopping list ready will save a lot of research time, and money can be quickly directed into those names that have convincing uptrends. Here are five mid- and small-cap software stocks that are on my radar as potential buys for investors. With forecasts suggesting cloud software will drive 50% of all software investment through 2019 (equal to average annual growth of 18.3%), these stocks deserve a spot on any growth investor’s wish list.

You should be taking taxes into account when investing, and the proper time to do that is BEFORE you buy a stock ... i.e., when you’re deciding how many shares and how much money to invest in the first place. Consider the taxes before you invest--if you do, you’ll have a truer grasp of your portfolio.

The American economy is in a period of great transition, but just like the frog in the pot of water that’s being slowly heated, many people don’t appreciate the magnitude of the coming changes yet. There are tremendous investment opportunities out there for investors who are willing to embrace the future. This week, General Motors (NYSE: GM) stock hit a 25-year low. In the same week, Clean Harbors (Nasdaq: CLHB), hit an all-time high.

I hope you had a great holiday season thus far, and I hope you have an even better New Year.

Understanding taxes can be a struggle, so let’s break down recent changes to the tax code and some penalties to avoid.

Last week, I changed the recommendation on Dollar Tree (DLTR) to Hold, and on Big Lots (BIG), Kraft Heinz (KHC) and WellCare (WCG) to Buy.

The bull market rolls on, and our portfolio continues to deliver, so I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested in stocks that help achieve your investing goals.

Today’s featured stock is making a repeat appearance, because we lost it on a shakeout earlier this year and I think it’s worth trying again.



As for the current portfolio, Tesla (TSLA) and Trulieve (TCNNF) are upgraded to buy, but we’re selling Coca Cola (KO), mainly because something’s got to go.



Details inside.

Stocks proved their resilience once again, shaking off the U.S.-China tariff re-escalation fears and creeping back toward their early-October highs. An encouraging start to third-quarter earnings season helped, but that was mostly the banks. The real test will come in the next couple weeks, when most of the big tech companies report. So it’s still choppy waters out there. With that in mind, today we add another fairly low-risk play to the Stock of the Week portfolio in the form of a healthcare REIT that offers a decent yield. It’s a stock Tom Hutchinson just recommended to his Cabot Dividend Investor audience.

Details inside.

All three major U.S. indexes were up around 2% yesterday as the Bank of England stepped in to stabilize the pound, but the recovery looks fragile as sentiment remains mixed at best in the short term. Explorer stocks drifted lower this past week and we remain defensive looking for asymmetric plays where the upside potential exceeds downside risk.

Nio (NIO) was up 22% this week though markets face headwinds of inflation and increasingly loose talk of recession by many including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. With regret, we let go of Sea (SE) but add another favorite selling at a sharp discount to its high—and in the middle of the unstoppable trend of cybersecurity.

This month we are dialing up the risk a little with a small software company that has a potentially disruptive platform that streamlines back-office processes for small and mid-sized businesses.

There are risks. The economy isn’t super strong, and this is a competitive market. But this company has a truly innovative set of solutions, is in one of the market’s most beat-up sectors and has new products and a low-cost customer acquisition strategy.

It’s also profitable and generates positive free cash flow, two attributes that make it an attractive acquisition target.

Enjoy!

Current Market Outlook


We don’t want to repeat ourselves too much, but the environment has remained mostly the same during the past few weeks. First, overall, this is a bull market that’s likely to carry nicely higher when looking out a few months; there remains plenty of doubt and uncertainty, which is (contrarily) a good thing. Second, though, making money has become trickier—there are far more news-driven moves, buying pressures seem to come and go for many leading stocks (as opposed to the sustained upmoves seen earlier this year) and there’s no question most indexes are extended to the upside. That’s no reason to get overly worried (most stocks are still acting normally), and in fact, we’re nudging our Market Monitor up a notch this week as leading stocks have perked up a bit. But it remains important to look for good entry points, honor your stops and take some partial profits when the opportunity arises.

Encouragingly, this week’s list is very broad, with all different types of sectors, sizes and growth/value outlook represented. There are many good names to choose from, but our Top Pick is Horizon Pharmaceuticals (HZNP), which has huge earnings estimates and a tight chart.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Anaplan (PLAN)	61.25	59.5-62.5	53-55
Enphase Energy (ENPH)	77.23	72-76	64-66
FedEx (FDX)	219.84	206-213	184-188
Futu Holdings (FUTU)	32.17	30-32	26-27
Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP)	75.12	72-76	65-67
Lithia Motors Inc. (LAD)	248.96	238-250	215-220
Roku, Inc. (ROKU)	173.48	167-174	147-150
Salesforce.com (CRM)	272.65	263-273	233-239
Trupanion (TRUP)	62.73	60.5-63	53-55
Tupperware Brands (TUP)	16.29	14.5-15.5	12-12.5

A large number of our portfolio stocks are experiencing bullish price action right now. Unless something ugly hits news headlines in the next few days, we’re probably going to enjoy a strong stock market in the first half of July. I hope you’re not sitting on the sidelines!

It’s been a rough couple months for growth stocks. But the most beaten-down small-cap stocks could be big money makers when the selling ends.