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The new year is off to a good start, with many of the areas that took lumps during December (namely the broad market and growth stocks) showing strength through three days—and, just as important to us, many individual stocks have perked up, with some resilient names pushing to new highs and others that dipped to support bouncing. That’s a good thing, but we’re also keeping in mind the fact that early January is often tricky (lots of sharp moves in both directions), that the intermediate-term trend of most indexes and measures is still neutral-to-negative and that there remain lots of crosscurrents among individual stocks, with some selling off while others strengthen. As we wrote above, we are encouraged and will nudge our Market Monitor up to a level 6, but, while this is a good first step, we want to see the action continue to conclude that the December air pockets are a thing of the past.

For the third straight issue, this week’s list is heavy on growth stocks, which remains a sign that big investors aren’t hunting for safety. Our Top Pick is a name we love fundamentally and whose stock has held up relatively well in recent weeks despite a huge run. If you enter, use a loose stop given its volatility.

FTAI Infrastructure (FIP), AvePoint (AVPT), Docebo (DCBO), Alkami (ALKT)

Editorial Note: With the market closed tomorrow, January 9, we’ve bumped up this week’s Issue to today.

At the end of 2024, we were in a “buy now to win tomorrow” type market. Now, we’re in more of a “buy now to win in the coming quarters” type market.

Given this backdrop, our first portfolio addition of the year is a lower-risk, high-quality software company specializing in digital banking solutions. It’s the fastest grower in its space and is on pace to deliver its first full-year profit in 2025.

Like a lot of stocks in both the software and financial arenas, shares of this company have been a little weak lately. I think that’s good – we can step in at a price modestly lower than just a few weeks ago.

This week’s volatility has been a bit unnerving but below the drama some good things are happening. The majority of our stocks finished the week higher and Sea Limited (SE) hit an all-time high after reporting another great quarter, confirming our view that this
could be an enduring growth story. No surprise that our emerging market timer is mixed, in a very modest uptrend but still below 50- and 200-day moving averages

Today, we have a new recommendation for you as we follow Warren Buffett to a financial technology play in Brazil

The market is in sell-off mode, with the Nasdaq down more than 7% in less than two weeks. But while growth stocks are in the dumps, value stocks are flourishing, up 5% year to date and outperforming growth by one of the wider margins in recent memory. So today, we sell out of a couple growth stocks that aren’t working and beef up our value exposure by adding the newest recommendation from Cabot Turnaround Letter Chief Analyst Clif Droke. It’s a company whose name you likely know, but a stock that was severely out of favor with Wall Street until recently – a perfect turnaround candidate.

Details inside.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain bullish, but again, be sure to keep your feet on the ground. The pullback last week was tedious, and our Two-Second Indicator is looking iffy, but the market’s trends have remained up and growth stocks are still very strong. We sold one-third of our Palatir (PLTR) position earlier this week, booking partial profits in a good winner, and tonight we’re going to average up in Samsara (IOT), buying another 5% stake, which will leave us with around 19% in cash. Details below.

Stocks keep hitting new highs, riding a stronger-than-expected earnings season and multiple red-hot trends (artificial intelligence, semiconductors, weight-loss drugs), all of which we have heavy exposure to in the Stock of the Week portfolio. It’s possible stocks in those sectors are due for a pullback, but tech as a whole is clearly thriving at the moment, so today we split the difference by adding a dividend-paying technology stock that’s been a long-time favorite of Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson.

Stocks finally had a down week, though the damage was modest. Is it the start of a longer retreat, or a rare speed bump in a relentless bull market? This week could tell us a lot, especially with more inflation data set to print. To better fortify our portfolio against any potential turbulence, today we add an industrial stock that’s a strong value play that is a new addition from Bruce Kaser to his Cabot Value Investor portfolio.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain optimistic, but continue to pick your spots. Most of the evidence is positive, but the action among growth stocks is good but somewhat mixed, with many names acting great but some hitting air pockets and lots hitting resistance near prior highs. In the Model Portfolio, we’re doing a little reshuffling tonight—we’re going to sell one-half of DraftKings (DKNG) and sell one-quarter of Uber (UBER), but we’re also going to start another half-sized stake in On Holding (ONON). We’re also placing Pulte (PHM) on Hold. We’ll still have about 23% in cash after these moves. Details below.

It’s been a very news-filled week, with a dockworkers strike (and short-term settlement) along with the Middle East attacks (and fears of an upcoming reprisal) and the usual spate of economic reports—but, interestingly, there hasn’t been that much movement. Taking into account pre-market action (before the jobs report), most big-cap indexes are flat-ish on the week, though smaller-cap names are down more than 1%.

After a rare down week for the market, and with the Fed set to potentially pour their usual pitcher of cold water on investor enthusiasm again this week, it’s possible an extended pause or even a modest pullback in stocks is in order. With that in mind, today we add another safety play in the form of a high-yield business development company Tom Hutchinson recently recommended to his Cabot Dividend Investor readers. And it’s not some stodgy, slow-burn title – the stock is trading at 52-week highs!

FTAI Aviation (FTAI) Short Report

Today we’ll take a half-sized position in a small-cap company that’s like the Amazon of manufacturing. Its marketplace is revolutionizing this outdated industry and bringing it into the digital age.

Despite several years of depressed manufacturing in the U.S., the company is growing. That’s a testament to its platform. And there’s also a potential growth kicker … Trump’s tariff policies and desire to kick off an onshoring boom.

All the details are inside the September Issue of Cabot Small Cap Confidential.

To begin, I would like to highlight that I have decided to omit the brief company review section that followed our weekly stock updates. This section caused some confusion and the information about each company is widely available. Likewise, I’m ending the Explorer watch list. If you own the stocks on the list right now, I see no reason to sell them.

Moving on to the market, the debates regarding the market’s direction seem endless.

The evidence for the overall market continues to improve; over the past week, two blastoff indicators have turned green, which should bode well when looking out over the next few months. Growth stocks, however, remain in a consolidation phase following some huge runs, with many (not all) stocks sagging back during the past week or two. Overall, though, the pullbacks have been normal, so we remain optimistic, though we’re still stepping slowly and looking for decent entry points.

In tonight’s issue, we’re doing a touch more buying, filling out a position in one of our stocks, following the addition of a full position last week. That will leave us with around 18% in cash.

There are roughly 200 million commercial vehicles in the world. They’re all trying to get to the right place, at the right time, at the lowest possible cost, without crashing. Managing these fleets probably isn’t as stressful as being an air traffic controller, but it’s right up there!
To help get the job done, fleet managers are increasingly turning to fleet telematics solutions. This specialized hardware and software can improve driver safety records, reduce accidents and theft, and reduce operating costs. Dramatic increases in fleet efficiency boost an organization’s bottom line. The bigger the group is, the bigger the potential opportunity.
All the details are inside this month’s issue of Cabot Small-Cap Confidential. Enjoy!

Gold hit $4,000 an ounce and the signal this is sending is not hard to grasp.

Investors are enjoying stock gains but are hedging downside currency and stock price risk as well as a hedge on growing government debt and geopolitical risk. Gold seems the most popular safe haven as it is viewed as a safe harbor asset in a way that the greenback used to be viewed. Gold’s rally began almost three years ago, fueled by central banks and Chinese investors leery of both its stock and property markets.

I haven’t written about the process of expiration.

On balance, there’s little doubt the evidence worsened last week, and yet, most leaders didn’t crack, and the big-cap indexes didn’t either, so the question was whether a “real” correction was getting underway … or this would be yet another shakeout-type decline that gives way to higher prices. So far, of course, it’s looking like the latter. On Friday’s update, we dropped our Market Monitor to a level 6, but we’re going to quickly change course and go back to 7 today—and then stay flexible as we see whether a year-end run is getting underway or whether more volatility is coming.

This week’s list again has a growth tilt to it, which we find encouraging given the selling we saw in many areas of the market of late. Our Top Pick is a steadier leader in the AI (and solar) space and is testing its 10-week line for the first time—look to enter on strength and use a tight-ish percentage stop.