Search

Earnings season is over, so there were no companies that reported earnings this past week. However, we do have at one last company on a slightly different fiscal schedule reporting next week – Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), who will announce results on the 27^th.

The shine seems to have come off gold and gold miners recently so we’re going to step aside from Alamos Gold (AGI) at just a hair above our entry price.

A good ‘til canceled (GTC) order can help you set the stage for dip-buying opportunities when they inevitably present themselves in the next down market.

With just one announcement at their Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple (AAPL) has positioned itself as arguably the best AI stock out there.

This market just continues to forge ever higher. The S&P 500 closed at new all-time highs four times last week. The index is now up 15% YTD, and we’re not even at the halfway point.

The market has been terrific. And it will probably finish the year higher than it is now. But there is reason for caution.

Because of sticky inflation, interest rates remain near the highest levels in 20 years and may continue to stay high or go higher, until they drive the economy down. A hugely contentious presidential election is about to take place. And there are two significant global wars going on.

Steep selloffs are common even in markets that rise over time. The S&P 500 doubled over the last five years. But it crashed 30% in record time at the onset of the pandemic in 2020. There was also a bear market in 2022 during which the S&P fell over 20% and the Nasdaq plunged well over 30%. Of course, most stocks were down a lot more than the indexes. If you targeted some of the very best stocks at fire sale prices you could have gotten amazing returns.

In this issue, I highlight a way to target the purchase of the very best stocks at fire sale prices amid market turmoil that may occur from the potentially market-roiling issues this year or next. Most investors don’t buy when the market is crashing because it’s natural not to want to try and catch a falling knife. But there’s a way to take emotion out of the equation and calmly plot a way to fantastic returns.

Small caps have been trailing the broader market since last May, but looking forward, the case for them is attractive. So are small caps a buy, sell or hold right now?

We’ve seen plenty of split tapes in our day, but this one is about as divergent as we can remember, and this week was another example of it playing out. Coming into today, the big-cap Nasdaq was up about 3% on the week while the S&P 500 was up 1.5%—but outside of a couple of growth measures, the rest of the market was flat (up 0.5% to down), and that’s before what looks like a down opening this morning.

It started as a relatively quiet week as summer gets going and Wednesday was off. But the past two days have brought a good-sized rotation, with a lot of elevated, strong names deflating in a hurry even as the major indexes don’t move too much.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Today is an ugly day for growth stocks, with sellers driving many stocks lower as the Nasdaq and some mega-cap winners wobbled. That said, the evidence is basically the same—very mixed and divergent on an intermediate-term basis, with some names doing well but much of the market chopping sideways. We think holding a good-sized chunk of cash makes sense given that risk is elevated, but we’re also holding on to our stocks and giving them some room to wiggle around. In the Model Portfolio, we’re watching things closely, but will sit tight tonight, holding our 30% cash position.

Sell Second Quarter of EverQuote (EVER)

The market remains a mixed bag, with some big-cap indexes moving up, but just about everything else still stuck in a trading range, while leading growth stocks remain hit or miss. That said, there are some encouraging signs, including some fresher leadership and resilient action among a bunch of names we’re watching and own, so we continue to play things in the middle--we’re holding some strong names and actually averaging up on one of our stocks tonight, but we’re also holding a chunk of cash and being selective.

While the gains/losses in the three major indexes were mostly muted last week, there was some interesting rotation out of the AI/Semiconductor theme and into recent underperformers … though this is hardly anything to write home about as it was just two days of this type of action.

By week’s end, the S&P 500 gained 0.65%, the Dow rose by 1.75%, and the Nasdaq fell marginally.

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) is up more than 140% so far in 2024. What’s behind the rise of this space-based cellular broadband company?

Renewable energy companies and their stock prices are rarely in sync. But solar socks in particular have become grossly undervalued – and history suggests that a major bounce-back is imminent.

Despite some troubling signs under the surface of the market, mega-cap tech once again led the indexes’ charge higher. And because of the heavy weighting of these tech stocks in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, those indexes gained 1.8% and 3.75%, respectively, while the Dow fell 0.4% on the week.