Stocks made yet another new high this week.

The S&P 500 has returned 17% this year and is well on its way to another 20%-plus return year, making it three consecutive years of such returns for the first time in nearly 30 years. Sure, the market likes rate cuts, but artificial intelligence is the main force driving the market higher.

Technology stocks, which now comprise more than a third of the S&P index, have driven the market higher for most of this three-year-old bull market. While AI is the primary driver of the market, it isn’t about just technology stocks anymore. The AI catalyst is driving other sectors higher.

AI is transforming the utility sector. The best stocks now offer strong growth in addition to defense. After being stagnant for decades, electricity demand is exploding. AI requires enormous amounts of electricity for the data centers that house the computer components. Electric vehicle proliferation and rapidly growing onshoring of manufacturing are also juicing demand.

In this issue, I highlight one of the best utility stocks on the market. This unprecedented environment is transforming the market’s most defensive sector into one that also offers exciting growth. The combination of defense and growth is unbeatable.

Despite some mid-week wobbles for stocks, especially in the growth sector, the market once again closed the week at new highs as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow rallied 2.2% and the Nasdaq advanced by 2.3%.

While there are new headlines each week that push and pull the overall market and individual sectors, the overall picture mostly remains the same: From a top-down perspective, the buyers continue to show up where they “should” after every pullback, keeping the intermediate-term trend of the major indexes up. Individual stocks remain trickier, and with earnings coming for most, that will probably tell the tale. We have seen a couple more breakouts of late, which is encouraging, but tonight we’ll stick with our level 7 on the Market Monitor and monitor how the gaggle of earnings reports are received in the days ahead.

This week’s list has something for everyone, including recent earnings winners, setups heading into quarterly reports and pullbacks in names that are already in strong uptrends. Our Top Pick rested in the summer and fall and has re-emerged on the upside.

Strong earnings results, Fed rate cuts, and easing trade tensions with China. It’s no wonder stocks are stretching to new all-time highs! Of course, it’s been a bit topsy-turvy getting there these last few weeks. But Wall Street is ultimately a sucker for a strong economy, and that’s essentially what we have until further notice. And in strong economies, it makes sense to invest in financials. So today, we add one of the biggest-name U.S. banks – a stock that made the cut in last week’s Cabot Top Ten Trader issue.

Details inside.

Despite some mid-week wobbles for stocks, especially in the growth sector, the market once again closed the week at new highs as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow rallied 2.2% and the Nasdaq advanced by 2.3%.

Despite some mid-week wobbles for stocks, especially in the growth sector, the market once again closed the week at new highs as the S&P 500 gained 1.9%, the Dow rallied 2.2% and the Nasdaq advanced by 2.3%.

To begin, just a heads up that there will be no Cabot Wealth Explorer issue on November 13 as I will be in transit for a mining and resource conference in Senegal.

Morgan Stanley (MS) notes that stock picking is back, with single-stock activity as opposed to funds and ETFs seeing a significant rise in recent months. This is interesting as there are now more ETFs trading on exchanges than stocks. Blending the two together is the optimal strategy for most.

Before we dive into this week’s covered call idea, we need to clean up a couple positions from the October expiration cycle.

After an ugly day October 10, the major indexes showed solid overall support last week, but under the hood was another round of volatile action, The market’s intermediate-term trend continues to tilt up, though we’re still taking things on a stock-by-stock basis and are closely watching earnings season, which is about to rev up. In the meantime, we’re just following the plan that’s been working for us: Being selective on the buy side, holding strong names (albeit with some partial profits on the way up) and also raising stops as time passes. We’ll again stick with a level 7 on the Market Monitor.

This week’s list is a mixed bag in terms of sectors and setups, with some we’re considering entering on strength and others on pullbacks. Our Top Pick is likely in for years of accelerating growth, and after a big run into early October, the recent pullback looks normal. We’re OK starting small here or on a bit more weakness.

Stocks proved their resilience once again, shaking off the U.S.-China tariff re-escalation fears and creeping back toward their early-October highs. An encouraging start to third-quarter earnings season helped, but that was mostly the banks. The real test will come in the next couple weeks, when most of the big tech companies report. So it’s still choppy waters out there. With that in mind, today we add another fairly low-risk play to the Stock of the Week portfolio in the form of a healthcare REIT that offers a decent yield. It’s a stock Tom Hutchinson just recommended to his Cabot Dividend Investor audience.

Details inside.

Coming off a nasty close for the market the previous week, the indexes rebounded this last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, the Dow added 1.6%, and the Nasdaq rallied 2.1%.

Coming off a nasty close for the market the previous week, the indexes rebounded this last week as the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, the Dow added 1.6%, and the Nasdaq rallied 2.1%.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are all up modestly compared to a week ago, while the S&P 600 is roughly flat.

Between the two small-cap indices, the Russell 2000 has been the stronger performer lately. It has a higher proportion of more speculative, lower quality stocks (i.e., those with lower or negative earnings), which have attracted more attention than the comparatively higher-quality (i.e., those with higher or positive earnings) stocks in the S&P 600 index.

While President Donald Trump hangs fire on rescheduling cannabis, we continue to get signs that support what I call the inexorable march towards greater acceptance of cannabis use and legal reform that will help public companies in the space.

We see momentum for cannabis acceptance and reform in: Ongoing federal-level evidence that Trump may actually follow through on his campaign promise to reschedule cannabis; ongoing robust state-level sales growth; opinion polls; and scientific evidence that cannabis has medical benefits.

What shutdown? What tariffs? The market couldn’t care less. It just keeps moving higher.

After making a series of new highs throughout the summer, the S&P had a great September. October looks good so far, too. Stocks are being driven higher by technology and the artificial intelligence trade. The technology sector is up 9% over the past month.

I was recently asked, “Why are there so few small-cap stocks in the Cabot Turnaround Letter portfolio?” That’s a fair question—a timely one at that—so I’ll address it here.

This week, about half of the Federal government shut down, causing stocks to waver and gold prices to spike due to uncertainty over how and when the budget duel might end. There are few winners in this tug-of-war scenario. This is not a good time for this showdown given weak business spending, a weak dollar, and weak job growth. The market normally takes these political fights in stride depending how long they last. Stay positive but cautious, and as always look for some profits to take off the table.

The market continues to hover near the high. The S&P is up over 13% year to date and about 38% from the April low.

The bull market continues to roll on. Stocks are hovering within bad-breath distance of the new high made just last week.

Why shouldn’t the market keep climbing? We are in a Fed rate-cutting cycle. There’s no sign of recession. And the artificial intelligence catalyst is driving projected earnings in the market’s largest sector into the stratosphere. It looks like stocks want to move higher and will continue to do so unless something pops up that makes them go down.

As the dividing line between the public and private sectors becomes increasingly blurred, it’s readily apparent that long-term investment decisions must now be evaluated through a new lens. And that means asking a simple question: “Could the financial asset I’m interested in acquiring be potentially influenced through direct federal intervention?”

WHAT TO DO NOW: Hold your dry powder for now. The elevated near-term risk for the market we had mentioned is beginning to play out, with the indexes pulling in, many stocks taking hits and, importantly, our Two-Second Indicator giving a warning sign. We’re not anxious to sell here, but we also want to see how this plays out given a couple of yellow flags that are out there. Tonight, we’ll stand pat with our good-sized (38%) cash position and will watch how things unfold.

We’re about to head into a crucial time of the year for small-cap stocks. That’s because the Q3 earnings season will fire up toward the end of October and run into early November.

This earnings season will let us know how small caps fared over the summer months and also give us a glimpse into how they’re expected to do in Q4 and the beginning of 2026.

Small caps have been outperforming large caps since the beginning of August.

The market has finally started to show some cracks the last couple days, but the bull market remains very much intact. Last week’s 25-basis-point Fed rate cut was expected, but should nonetheless act as a tailwind – or at least a floor raiser – in the coming months, especially as Jerome Powell and company signaled that they plan to cut twice more before year’s end. And yet, there’s no getting around the fact that stocks, as a whole, are overvalued, with the S&P 500 trading at 23.8x forward earnings – its highest point since late February.

The market just keeps on going. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq made yet another new high on Monday. And that makes me nervous. I guess I’m just not built to receive continuing good news without getting suspicious.

So much for the cranky post-summer investor and the historically rough September. The S&P is up 3.4% for the month so far. It’s also up 13.8% YTD and 38% from the April low. Why not? We’re in a Fed rate-cutting cycle. The AI catalyst is going strong. And the economy is nowhere near recession.

We’re going to take a modest profit of around 8% on Doximity (DOCS) today

GE Vernova (GEV) reported this morning, with revenue, EBITDA, margins and Free Cash Flow all coming in ahead of expectations, while GAAP EPS missed. Management reaffirmed full-year guidance and said its Power and Electrification segments continue to lead growth while Wind remains soft but is improving on an operational level. Orders and backlog hit records with 20 gas turbines sold in Q3. The company acquired the remaining 50% stake in Prolec GE for $5.275 billion (expected to close mid-2026).

WHAT TO DO NOW: Yesterday we took our tiny profit MP as that stock has continued to tumble, and now we’re going to sell our stake in GE Vernova (GEV), which reported a very solid quarter this morning—but investors took the opportunity to sell into the move, creating a breakdown from a big double top. We’ll sell and hold the cash, leaving us with around 43% on the sideline.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The indexes continue to act fine, but individual growth stocks remain hit or miss based on the news of the day. Today we’re going to sell our position in MP Materials (MP), taking a tiny gain and holding the cash (which will now be around 35%). Details below.

Today, a whopping eight Profit Booster positions will expire. Most are “slam-dunk,” full-profit trades, while others will go down to the wire.

The big takeaway, before we dive in, is we are going to let the situation play itself out, and come Monday/Tuesday of next week we will revisit our profits, as well as how we will manage the remaining positions.

I’m recommending that we sell our position in Helen of Troy (HELE).

We’re going to step aside from Byrna Technologies (BYRN) today.

Helen of Troy (HELE) is imploding on earnings today, despite beating estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue, however, declined 9% year over year, while earnings per share of 59 cents were less than half the $1.21 the company earned in the same quarter a year ago, though they were north of the 54-cent estimate

Sell a Half Position in UiPath (PATH)

Sell Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) & ThredUp (TDUP)

Guidelines to improve your investment results with Cabot Top Ten Trader.

The Cabot Top Ten Trader system evaluates price and relative performance of 8,000 charts each week to select the strongest momentum stocks.

By following thse guidelines, we’ve always been able to get on board relatively early in each new bull cycle.

A brief guide on using the Cabot Top Ten Trader.

Benjamin Graham is widely acknowledged as the father of modern security analysis and value investing, and his books are considered the bibles for individual investors and professionals.

Today’s new addition to the high yield tier, Pattern Energy Group (PEGI) is a yieldco, a relatively new class of high yield investment.

Here’s a refresher on what qualities help a stock pass our Individualized Retirement Income System tests for inclusion in the Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio.

We take a look at some of the major rotations of the past year, and how, when—or if—they were resolved.

What does risk tolerance really mean, and how can you figure out what yours is?