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After spiking last Wednesday, the major indexes have, predictably, pulled back over the past week. The market is likely to try to shake out weak hands a few more times before starting a sustained new uptrend. I have no rating changes today, but read on for brief updates on all our holdings.

Two stocks in our Portfolio each reported strong earnings beats this morning.

After a mixed performance last week, the market opened significantly lower yesterday, and the Dow and S&P 500 both hit their lowest level since the start of October. One of Cabot’s long-term market timing indicators just turned negative, which tells us it’s time to get more defensive. As a result, we are doing some selling today and moving two position to Hold.

Four stocks from the Portfolios reported earnings.

The Cabot Emerging Markets Timer is solidly negative, and the U.S. indexes have joined in the decline.

The Cabot Emerging Markets Timer is heading in the direction of a new buy signal, but isn’t there yet.

The market has rallied since the last update; all sectors except for utilities are higher over the last five days. Materials, energy, financial and consumer discretionary stocks have led the rebound. While it’s certainly possible that the end of October marked the end of the correction, most corrections don’t end that neatly. No changes to the portfolio, but we do have plenty of good candidates lined up for when the market continues its advance.

I’m moving another five stocks from Strong Buy to Hold. It’s a normal seasonal pattern in the market that any stock that’s trading at its low point for the year during the fourth quarter will then remain low through the very last days of 2018 due to tax-loss selling. And unfortunately, the stock market has decided to present us with another correction, so most stocks are down in recent weeks.

Several readers have asked about what effect tomorrow’s election might have on marijuana stocks, in part because four states have measures on the ballot that would increase legality.

Correction: KLXE

Following Friday’s meltdown, the market attempted to bounce this morning, but was overwhelmed with selling pressures again, resulting in another round of huge losses. As a result, this caused one of our positions to dive below long-term support on big volume and it’s time to sell. This sale will raise our cash position to around 78%, which is obviously a highly defensive stance.

The market hates uncertainty and it is getting it by the bucket-full right now. If you need a simple explanation for this volatility, that’s it.

I expect a traders’ market through year end. Be wary: just because a stock rebounds nicely this week does not mean that it will maintain those share price gains.

While we have been holding a large amount of cash in the portfolio and have only a short list of stocks rated buy, the market’s assault has reached unacceptable levels.

The market has calmed down a bit as the Nasdaq is virtually unchanged in the last week and the Dow, meanwhile, made some decent strides, gaining 1% to reach a new six-month high. Several of our stocks have taken encouraging steps forward since last Wednesday and I have no rating changes today.

The market was on edge last week and reached a tipping point yesterday on concerns that the 10-year yield has broken well above 3% and could move higher still if the Fed continues to tighten (as it has signaled it will).

The stock market managed to tread water for most of September but we’re seeing some renewed rotation as we start October. Selling is prevalent in growth stocks the past two days but the portfolio is holding up just fine with the short-term volatility. I have two ratings changes, moving one position to Hold and putting one back on Buy.

Stocks are churning in place, appearing unsure of how to proceed this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally retraced its January 2018 record high. Will it advance promptly or establish a trading range? If we look back to recent patterns on the S&P 500 index, which retraced its January high in August, and we presume that the Dow might follow suit, then we’re in for some sideways trading on the Dow.

As we draw closer to October 17, the day cannabis is legal across Canada, there are growing projections that the supply of legal cannabis will be insufficient to meet demand in the early months.