Jerome Powell went full Grinch last week, sparking a brief market selloff after saying the Fed would cut rates at a slower pace than expected in 2025. Prior to that, there were some obvious cracks beneath the market’s surface, so Powell’s downer of a press conference served more to expand the selling than cause it. But the nice rebound in the last two trading days shows the bulls are still mostly in charge, which means it’s a good time to add a mid-cap water stock that Tyler Laundon just introduced to his Cabot Early Opportunities audience.

Details inside. Happy Holidays!

The major indexes have mostly held serve near all-time highs this month. But beneath the surface, some selling has emerged, as high-flying growth stocks, the Dow, small caps and the Equal Weight index are all down in December. Is it a sign of broader selling to come? That may depend on language coming out of this week’s Fed speak and presumed rate cut. Regardless, I don’t think the bull market is on borrowed time – I expect it to continue well into 2025.

With that in mind, we reintroduce one of my favorite stocks – one that I previously added in the teeth of the bear market in 2022 before it took on too much water but has been rounding into shape for more than a year. Now, Carl Delfeld is recommending it to his Cabot Explorer readers. Today, we give it a second go-round with high hopes for next year and beyond


Details inside.

At a high level, the market is still humming on all cylinders, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hovering near all-time highs. But look closer, and some cracks have egun to form, with the Dow down in the last week and some high-flying growth stocks – including several in the Stock of the Week portfolio – getting sold off today. With inflation data to come later this week, it’s possible a pullback of some kind is in order. So today, we add an inflation-proof stock that Clif Droke just wrote extensively about in his Cabot Turnaround Letter advisory.

Details inside.

The market continued to inch its way higher in the two weeks since I last wrote. The Stock of the Week portfolio isn’t inching – it’s soaring. Multiple positions in our portfolio were up double-digit percentages in the last couple weeks, with several others hitting new 52-week or all-time highs. As always, it’s a testament to the elite stock-picking ability of our superb analysts. And today, we add another stock, a familiar name that has regained momentum enough to warrant inclusion in last week’s Cabot Top Ten Trader advisory.

Details inside.

In our last issue before the holiday shopping season hopefully kicks off the next leg of the bull market, today we subtract two underperforming overseas positions and add a mid-cap defense stock recommended by Cabot Explorer Chief Analyst Carl Delfeld. We also put a bow on Q3 earnings season (minus this week’s Nvidia report, of course), which was mostly a force for good among the stocks in our portfolio.

Details inside.

The election is over. Earnings season is largely behind us. And the Fed matched investor expectations by cutting rates by another 25 basis points. The result? A market at fresh all-time highs and with newfound momentum on the heels of a sluggish October. And the Stock of the Week portfolio is performing even better, with no fewer than 10 stocks (!) trading at new all-time or 52-week highs as of this writing.

So, let’s lean into the growth environment while it lasts by adding a mid-cap fintech software stock that Tyler Laundon introduced to his Cabot Early Opportunities readers last month.

Details inside.

It’s election week, and it will be the elephant in the room for investors until a winner is declared. Will that be before the market opens on Wednesday, as in 2016? Will it take until this weekend, like it did in 2020? Or could this toss-up election drag out even longer, a la Bush/Gore in 2000? Either of the two former scenarios probably wouldn’t impact the market much. The latter would, at least for a time. So let’s all hope for a quick result. Sprinkle in the latest round of Fed cuts later in the week, plus more than a handful of earnings reports for Stock of the Week stocks, and it’s an incredibly pivotal week for the market.

With so much up in the air, today we add a relatively “safe” large-cap stock with a decent yield, low beta and impressive earnings growth. It’s been a staple of Tom Hutchinson’s Cabot Dividend Investor portfolio for quite some time.

Details inside.

The deep breath before a toss-up presidential election has arrived on Wall Street, with stocks barely budging in the last two to three weeks. Investors are likely prepared for either outcome but are waiting until a winner is declared before resuming this two-year bull market rally. While we wait, it’s a good time to pare down our portfolio a bit, which we do today by saying goodbye to three recent laggards. We also add a high-growth tech stock with plenty of momentum that Mike Cintolo recommended to his Cabot Top Ten Trader audience a week ago.

Details inside.

Stocks stayed the course this past week, holding near all-time highs despite myriad existential threats out there (expanding Middle East war, a toss-up presidential election two weeks away, Q3 earnings season underway, etc.). Clearly, the bulls are in control right now. That can change at the drop of a hat – or an unexpected news event. But we have to go with the evidence in front of us, and right now it’s saying, “Buy.”

But it does make sense to add some better values to the portfolio. And this week we do just that, adding an undervalued small-cap utility stock that recently caught the eye of Clif Droke, Chief Analyst of the Cabot Turnaround Letter.

Details inside.

Stocks are at all-time highs, yet again, defying the myriad potential macro tailwinds (expanding war in the Middle East, looming presidential election, another damaging hurricane, Q3 earnings season underway, etc.) that have been threatening to derail the market. One of them still could, but for now, we’ll stick with what’s in front of us, and that’s a market with plenty of momentum. Today, we lean into that momentum by adding a mid-cap tech stock recently recommended by Tyler Laundon to his Cabot Early Opportunities audience.

Details inside.

Spooky season is upon us! Yes, the usual October selling has commenced, although it’s been fairly mild thus far. But things feel unsettled, what with the expanding war in the Middle East, a toss-up presidential election less than a month away, and with earnings season getting underway this week. So today, to counter any further turbulence, we trim one modest laggard and add a new, low-beta, dividend-paying European stock that’s been a favorite of Cabot Explorer Chief Analyst Carl Delfeld for some time.

Details inside.

Stocks cooled off this past week, though they mostly held their gains, which is not a bad way to close out an unusually productive September. Investors can likely thank the Fed for that. But many potential landmines (presidential election, escalating tensions in the Middle East, another jobs report this week) loom, so we’ll see how things go as we enter an uncertain October.

Given all the uncertainty, today we add a large-cap value stock that I recently recommended in my Cabot Value Investor portfolio. It’s one of the largest banks in America, and it’s potentially on the cusp of getting much bigger. Last year, it caught the attention of Warren Buffett. And so far, his bet on it appears to be paying off – with more upside ahead.

Details inside.

It was a tale of two earnings responses with Eli Lilly (LLY) and Si-Bone (SIBN) yesterday.

On Holding (ONON) is in full retreat mode since reporting what appeared to be mostly good earnings on Tuesday this week.

Montauk Renewables (MNTK) reported third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday and they weren’t good – at least not compared to estimates.

In recent days, several stocks recommended by Cabot analysts have rocketed to new highs, propelled by the twin forces of social media and short-covering, and our Virgin Galactic (SPCE) is one of them.

Long-term, the odds are very good that this recommendation will move higher, so there is an argument for holding patiently. But we will sell.

The shares of this China stock fell sharply today after the company announced that it had suspended the CFO and several employees reporting to him for misconduct related to “fabricated transactions.”

In this rare, mid-week update I will try to be brief, because I know you have a lot to read, including numerous notices of cancellations and closings.

One of our stocks is now rated Sell, simply because it has come so far so fast.

One of our stocks reported results on Thursday and investors didn’t care for the results.

While many investors will be selling stocks in panic today, fearful of the unknown, I recommend that you sit calmly. Wait for the panic to pass and the dust to settle.

Abiomed (ABMD) and GrubHub (GRUB) snapped their uptrends and are now rated Sell.

Twilio (TWLO) sold off in a big way this morning because late last Friday, the company announced that it will sell shares in a secondary offering—but it didn’t say how many!

Cabot Stock of the Week is a great way to build a diversified portfolio of the top growth, undervalued, momentum, international, dividend and small-cap stocks selected for current market conditions from seven Cabot investment advisories.