Search

The predictable September selloff got underway last week, though thankfully only one holding in the Stock of the Week portfolio was a true casualty of Wall Street’s usual post-Labor Day foul mood. This week, likely the last before the Fed (finally) starts to cut interest rates, we add a company that should benefit directly from the cuts: a mortgage lender and real estate firm. It’s a new recommendation from Mike Cintolo in his Cabot Top Ten Trader newsletter, and it’s a stock that’s already having a nice year – but could have way more upside once the Fed starts to cut rates.

Details inside.

One of the portfolio stocks reported a big earnings miss; increases dividend and moves from Strong Buy to Buy.

I’m adding E*Trade Financial (ETFC) to the Growth Portfolio today.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The broad markets have improved nicely in the past month, albeit with a recent pullback. Leading sectors were Communication Services, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Technology, and Utilities. Style-wise, large-cap growth stocks beat their value peers, gaining 3.64% for the month.

The employment picture remains healthy, with 236,000 jobs added in March, taking the unemployment rate down to 3.5%. This was the slowest job growth in two years, so economists are hoping that will slow inflation—and the Fed’s rate hikes!

Retiring abroad may sound like a dream come true, but it’s a growing reality for more and more Americans. In this month’s issue, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular destinations for expats, the pros and cons of retiring abroad, and how to start finding a job (and a community) if you live internationally. In other words, everything you need to know before you go.

It was another positive week for the market, with some major indexes nosing to new highs, and while it’s far from 1999 out there, individual stocks are seeing very few breakdowns while the leadership ranks gradually expand. Of course, there remain some headwinds out there, but the intermediate-term evidence remains positive, and we’re now even seeing some longer-term evidence start to point up. Thus, we’ll nudge our Market Monitor up another notch to a level 8.

This week’s list has something for everyone, with some zingers, some steady Eddies and more than a few recent earnings winners. Our Top Pick looks like an emerging blue chip in the cloud software field, and shares emerged from a big consolidation after earnings last week.

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!

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.

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.