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Cannabis stocks rose sharply in early May on news that Congress is getting serious again about allowing banks to serve cannabis companies. The Senate banking committee will hold hearings on the favorable bank reform May 11.

The reform bill, called the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, was recently refiled by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both branches of Congress. The co-sponsors were: Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT), and Reps. David Joyce (R-OH) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).

It’s anybody’s guess what the second half will have in store for the market. The first half surprised almost everyone with a stellar 16% gain in the S&P.

Investors are sensing a soft-landing, whereby we get past this Fed rate hiking cycle without a recession and minimal economic pain. Recent economic numbers reflect a greater likelihood of that scenario.

Anything is possible. The market could be off to the races, or it could sober up and pull back. Inflation is falling while the Fed is still making hawkish noises. It’s reasonable to assume that even if the economy isn’t slowing down yet, the Fed will continue to raise rates until it does.

Tyler updates us on four Cabot Early Opportunity Stocks.

We picked up maple sugaring as a fun, spring-time activity, but running into the unexpected offered some lessons for me as a small-cap investor.

On June 18, I received an email from a subscriber to Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report, the investment advisory for which I’m Chief Analyst. Here’s what I wrote back to my subscriber, slightly edited.

This week we had two companies reporting earnings, one reports next week, and the earnings deluge starts the following week with at least seven companies reporting.

The worst of the European crisis has passed. While many of the overleveraged countries on the continent still have major problems to solve, the European Central Bank’s actions last year have succeeded in keeping the monetary union together. And with uncertainty surrounding the eurozone’s fate removed, European equities are already...

Health Management Systems (HMSY) gets paid for (successfully) keeping health care costs under control.

If you’d asked a year ago I wouldn’t have connected the dots, but my recent experience with maple sugaring has a couple small-cap industrials on my mind for a good reason.

So where’s the investment? I have two. The first is a big, fast-growing Russian dairy company, Wimm Bill Dann Foods (WBD). It brought in over $2 billion in revenues last year selling milk, cream cheese, yogurt, butter, kefir, cottage cheese, juice, water, baby food and dairy desserts. It’s growing revenues at a rate of about 40% per year. It’s expected to grow earnings by 35% in 2007 and 40% in 2008. Its current PE ratio is 33. And the stock is trending up!

Smart investing isn’t picking value or growth (even though value is currently leading), it’s finding the right blend of the two.

2025 was a banner year for emerging markets investors, and due to a number of factors, that trend should continue in 2026.

High inflation and an aggressive Fed have been headwinds for the stock market this year, but is a “November Surprise” in the cards?

While this morning is a bit of a downer, the week as a whole has been a great one for stocks, with the major indexes up in the 2.5% to 5% range generally speaking. But more important to us is where that strength has taken the indexes—specifically, above their December highs, which turns the market’s intermediate-term trend up.

Although it may not be evident in the negative headlines, America (and its stock market) runs on optimism. That, plus a little patience, is key for portfolio outperformance.

Perhaps a slogan that best represents American history as well as the American stock market might be - “America Runs on Optimism.”