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In November’s Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we discuss the supposed rotation from growth stocks into value stocks and the underlying reasons, which we think could drive erratic market action in the coming weeks. Despite the somewhat conflicting trends out there, we serve up a menu of compelling opportunities spanning Medtech, manufacturing, software and even health and beauty products, which we can all use a little of these days!

Over the past month or so, it seemed like stocks would continue their frenetic surge. This week, however, the market appears relatively lackluster with a lot less excitement. Some investors may yearn for more fireworks, but as a value investor, I find this calm to be more sane.

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Last week we wrote that usually the first shakeout after a multi-week thrust isn’t the last, and indeed, we’ve seen some follow-on profit-taking among the market’s strongest stocks. There has been a little abnormal action here and there (mostly in biotech, but some elsewhere, too), but so far, the vast majority of stocks are simply pulling back after big-volume moves to new highs. If the selling spreads and the uptrend fails, then we’ll change our advice. But, as usual, we advise going with the weight of the evidence, which today remains bullish. Thus, hold your top performers, and adding a stock or two on dips is still favored.

This week’s list has a diverse flair to it—it’s not all high-flying stocks like we saw during February. But there is still plenty to like, including our Top Pick, Novo Nordisk (NVO), which has a solid growth story and a chart that’s at a fine entry point.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Under Armour (UA)	0.00	110-115	99-102
Trina Solar (TSL)	0.00	17-18	14-15
SouFun (SFUN)	0.00	88-90	78-80
Qihoo 360 (QIHU)	0.00	112-120	97-100
Novo Nordisk (NVO)	0.00	44.5-46.5	41-42
MasTec, Inc. (MTZ)	66.65	40-42	37-38
Magna International Inc. (MGA)	0.00	94-96.5	88-89
CoStar Group (CSGP)	589.55	200-208	182-185
Athenahealth (ATHN)	0.00	178-182	154-156
Alaska Air Group (ALK)	0.00	87-90	80-81

This week’s note includes our comments on earnings from Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC). Next Thursday, we get earnings from Nokia (NOK). The deluge starts the following week with eight companies scheduled to report.

The general market picture continues to look bright. All three of our key market timing indicators remain bullish—both the market’s intermediate- and longer-term trends are pointed up, and the broad market is in great shape, with the Two-Second Indicator continuing to record fewer than 20 new lows day after day.

Explorer positions had an up week as the S&P 500 has begun a turnaround from bear market territory and is now down “only” about 13% for the year. This means it is up around 6% since hitting its recent low on May 19 as the Fed has softened its tone and China tries to get growth going.

Electric vehicle sales are set to more than triple to just over 20 million in 2025, according to BloombergNEF. This is up from a previous estimate of 15 million.

The market is continuing its bumpy ride higher. Despite a barrage of concerns, 10 of the 11 S&P 500 stocks sectors are higher year to date.

Some of the strongest performers in the small-cap health care space are small-cap medical device stocks. And these three are soaring after earnings.

Stock buybacks and dividends are two very popular options for companies to return cash flow to shareholders, but which is better for investors?

Overall, the market’s action remains as close to pristine as you could hope for. Under the hood, there has been a touch of rotation, with some growth stocks chopping around while cyclical, construction and materials names perk up. All in all, we wouldn’t be surprised if growth continued to catch its breath, as the recent pullback was very brief, but that’s short-term nitpicking: While dips and potholes will come, the bottom line is that the vast majority of evidence is bullish, so you should be, too. We’ll bump our Market Monitor up to a level 8, and think adding exposure (ideally on dips) makes sense.

This week’s list reflects the broadening we’re seeing out there, with a few tech names but many others from other corners of the market. Our Top Pick is a long-term winner in the aerospace and defense field whose stock just broke out.

From The Energy Strategist: “A trend has emerged in a recent wave of deals among energy-focused master limited partnerships. … I’ve explained the relationship between general partners (GP) and limited partners (LP) in previous issues of The Energy Strategist, but this concept is crucial to understanding the recent wave of...

When is a micro-cap stock worth buying? Here’s how to tell whether it’s worth buying—with examples of micro-cap stocks to buy (or avoid).

The market looked ugly early last week before finding some support, but we’re going to need to see more before changing our stance. We will say that, with September in the rearview mirror, there are many studies that point to a year-end rally and we continue to see a decent number of potential growth-y leaders that aren’t far from overcoming some technical hurdles. In other words, now’s not the time to stick your head in the sand, but as always, we want to see it first (some decisive buying) before taking much action. We’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5.

This week’s has a broad array of resilient stocks, with our Top Pick in pole position to be one of the top growth stocks—if and when the market gets going.