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As value/contrarian investors, we have little interest in accepting the market’s wisdom. Some might say that we have little ability to accept the market’s wisdom, which is probably what distinguishes us from other investors (and academics) that accept such guidance.

We’ll quote Warren Buffett, founder and head of Berkshire Hathaway, who wrote in his 1987 letter to shareholders, “Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you.” By this, he means that the stock market’s inability to make accurate predictions should help investors make money. And that these predictions shouldn’t provide guidance on how to invest, given that they are so often wrong.

Many things have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and how your portfolio is balanced is one of them. Watch Nancy Zambell, Chief Analyst of Wall Street’s Best Investments and she will tell you what you need to do. In this FREE webinar recording she talks about how the flip from a bull market to a bear market affects what you should be holding, depending on your long-term and short-term goals. She also names a couple of stocks that are good to add to your portfolio, to keep it growing.

Mike Cintolo, Chief Analyst of Cabot Growth Investor and Cabot Top Ten Trader, shared the best stocks to buy in March any why to buy them. You can download the slides here.

We’ve had an up and down week for emerging markets with a big day yesterday followed by weakness today. Our EEM signal stays positive so we are adding a half position today and moving one stock from buy to hold.

The markets have continued their bullish momentum so far in 2024, with growth stocks continuing to lead the way—especially large caps, which are up 32.94% so far this year.

Sector-wise, Communication Services (up 9.74%), Technology (up 5.07%), and Healthcare (up 4.11%) are the winners so far, with Real Estate (down 4.37%), Utilities (-2.91%), and Consumer Discretionary (-0/83%) the losing sectors.

Housing inventory is still tight, with prices remaining a little lofty. The S&P Case-Shiller home price index came in at a 5.4% rise, which was a bit less than the 5.7% forecast, but still higher than the month before.

The much-anticipated market dip finally arrived last week, and so far, when you look at the leadership of this market—the Nasdaq and leading individual stocks—the action has been completely normal, and in fact, seems to be producing some higher-odds entry points as names dip toward support. Once again, though, we need to keep a close eye on the broad market—the intermediate-term trend remains up, but it’s getting close to the edge, with another bad week possibly putting the broad market back in the soup. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 7 today but we’re watching things closely in case weak breadth causes the selling pressures to build.

This week’s list has a growing number of pullback-related setups. Our Top Pick quacks like a new technology leader that’s pulled back reasonably after a strong rally. It’s volatile, so start small and use a loose leash.

The heart of the Contrary Opinion Forum is the talks by some of the best independent thinkers in the investment business.

After trading as low as 1139 on May 12 the S&P 600 Small Cap Index has staged a modest recovery, crossing back above the January and February lows of around 1230 two weeks ago.

Here’s an interview with Paul Goodwin, Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report chief analyst.

Clearly, it’s in the interests of full-service brokerages to discourage you from making your own investing decisions. They make their money from commissions for trading your account and fees for managing your money. And the more they can count on keeping you in a standard mix of index funds, ETFs, sector funds and bond funds, the better they like it.

While AI seized the headlines in 2023, software stocks have been performing well in their own right. Here are three small caps I like right now.