While the major indices paused Wednesday in advance of important quarterly reports from mega Technology names, we will look at the technical condition of the largest holdings in the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ). Of note, after the close, META reported and is down over13% ahead of the open today.

The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where labor and materials costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the current period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as vaccines and AI) and services (such as Zoom calls) and moving into new markets, the domestic economy would not be growing, and capital would not be flooding into the country. The current high level of the U.S. dollar relative to currencies around the world attests to the confidence that global investors have in the durable and innovative U.S. economy.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Stocks were mixed on Tuesday morning as investors digested earning reports. Starts of residential units fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,321,000 in March, a 14.7% decline from February's revised rate and well short of expectations. Building permits issued also slipped to an annualized 1,458,000, a 4.3% decline from February and also short of expectations. Housing starts declined in all regions with the exception of the West, which rose 7.1%. Building permits issued were flat for units of five or more homes per building, while declining 10.3% for buildings of two to four units, and 5.7% for single-family homes. Regionally, permits issued fell in the Northeast (-20.8%), Midwest (-14.7%), and South (-0.6%), while growing in the West (+5.1%). The Dow was up 0.4%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%. Crude oil is trading near above $85 per barrel and gold rose $22 to $2405 per ounce.

This could be an important week for the stock market as the major indices, especially the Nasdaq and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), look like they are starting to roll over. In addition, we have seen four distribution days on the QQQ since early March. According to Investor's Business Daily, four or five distribution days within a 25-day period suggest institutional selling and, many times, a sign of at least an intermediate-term top.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

This weekend, in Vegas, it's the Chiefs versus the 49ers. Usher is the halftime show; Tom Brady appears in a commercial; and Taylor Swift fans add a whole new demographic to the fan base. But aside from all that, there is big money at stake. For our list this week, we present possible ways to invest in the Super Bowl.

In this edition, Worldline pays its bills; Taiwan Semiconductor has upbeat guidance; Australian banks are undervalued; and Just Eat Takeaway, Compass Minerals, and Charles Schwab.

4Q23 Sets the Table for 2024

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

Stocks rebounded nicely on Thursday after the Wednesday thrashing. This potentially classifies Wednesday's thumping as a one-day wonder, which implies the current rally off the October lows isn't quite done yet. The problem is that a rally to new recovery/all-time highs is likely to incur a daily bearish momentum divergence. While one such event is just a warning, it raises the possibility that a reset is needed. As we have said of late, both daily momentum and breadth have reached extreme overbought conditions, while sentiment is scorching hot. So a pause/pullback might be in the cards.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

The major stock indices seem to be digesting their Thanksgiving dinner, and by that we mean digesting the recent spike higher since October 27. Of late, the indices have drifted sideways, bullishly working off overbought momentum conditions in time and not price. The S&P 500 (SPX), S&P 100, Nasdaq (QQQ), Nasdaq 100, S&P MidCap 400 (MDY), and Russell 2000 (IWM) all have paused at chart resistance or overhead supply (prior buying), which is not surprising.

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. The retailers are out in force, with a massive marketing push to win dollars during this prime shopping time during the holidays. Just like retail, some stocks are seemingly at a big discount right now. Yes, we have our own Black Friday on Wall Street. But shop with care. We look for quality companies with solid books, proven track records, and strong management. This week, we used the Argus screening tool to create a list of companies that have clean balance sheets, high levels of profitability, and that we think are also undervalued and offer possible buying opportunities. We sorted the Argus stock universe for companies with a BUY rating, a market cap over $8 billion, and the highest financial strength ratings. Then we looked for those that are furthest away from their 52-week highs, and thus likely offering the deepest discounts. The resulting list is weighted towards Financial. That's not surprising based on the beating that the Financial sector took earlier this year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Here is our list of recommended Black Friday Stock Deals for November 2023.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

Innovation may be hard to define. But to borrow from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where labor and materials costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the current period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as vaccines) and services (such as Zoom calls) and moving into new markets and applications, the domestic economy would not be growing, and capital would not be flooding into the country. The current high level of the U.S. dollar relative to currencies around the world attests to the confidence that global investors have in the durable and innovative U.S. economy.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

August has been rough for stocks. The markets are down from their highs, although the year overall has been upbeat for stocks -- especially compared to a dismal 2022. The continued stress on the economy from higher interest rates, and questions about whether the Federal Reserve is done raising them, have weighed on valuations. Most economists are not convinced that the recession question has been answered. While there are strengths in the economy -- like the labor market and consumer spending -- inflation indicators inched up last month. The uncertain environment has impacted small-caps, mid-caps, large-caps, and even mega-caps. There is a wide range in data that shows how sectors are weathering this climate, with Communication Services up nearly 40% year-to-date but Consumer Staples down 2% for the same time period. In our opinion, some solid companies with strong financials have been oversold. For our list this week, we identified 10 BUY-rated large- or mega-cap companies across numerous industries that are selling at attractive valuations (more than 20% below their 52-week highs). They are listed according to company size, with the largest first.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, tracks and analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership trends. Institutions must file a Form 13F to report their holdings, and it is due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters. So these forms have now come in from 2Q23. We like to review the 13Fs of major activist investors, including Carl Icahn, Trian Fund Management, Jana Partners, and ValueAct Holdings, among others, in order to determine their core holdings and new purchases. Activist investing has evolved in recent years and is now less about generating a short-term return on an underpriced stock and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnership. Activists have made progress in the past year with high-profile investments into companies such as Fedex and Union Pacific. According to Vickers, here are some recent new purchases and key holdings of activist investors, as well as other high-profile money managers such as Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and Ken Griffin of Citadel Advisors LLC.

In this edition, Charles Schwab's position gets clearer; Croda's portfolio will underpin growth; Paycor keeps clients on the payroll; and Geberit, Singapore Exchange, and Nice.

We have raised our intermediate-term technical outlook to neutral. The Teflon stock market continues to crawl higher in the face of bearish daily momentum divergences and, in some cases, extreme bullish sentiment. This is typical action in the early stages of a bull market. However, it took 164 days for the S&P 500 (SPX) to gain 20%, far longer than almost every other bull market in the past -- so we thought we were dealing with a market that might remain range bound. That hasn't been the case, as the major indices have dealt extremely well with some key areas of chart resistance as well as various important Fibonacci retracement levels.

This was one of our 10 Investment Themes for 2023 and remains relevant, as the S&P 500 is up 13% year-to-date. The long-term trend in the U.S. stock market has been higher; since 1980, stocks have turned in a positive performance almost 80% of the time. The average annual gain has been 13%. That was not so in 2022. Yes, the S&P 500 set an all-time record. But it peaked on January 3 and the rest of the year was downhill. The stock market entered a bear market in June 2022. Bond returns weren't much better, as spiking inflation pushed long-term interest rates higher and the Fed raised short-term rates to try to bring inflation down. The turmoil posed a challenge for Wall Street firms, as investment returns were dismal, the IPO market dried up, and M&A activity disappeared. By year-end, Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were announcing layoffs. We are more optimistic for the financial markets in 2023. Equity valuations are lower in the wake of the selloff in 2022. There is pent-up demand for IPOs and M&A once the environment improves. Finally, consensus expectations call for weak earnings and investment returns in 2023, setting markets up for a positive surprise. As the outlook improves, we think that investor demand will pick up for investment banks, exchange operators, and money-management firms. We recently raised our sector rating on Financial Services to Over-Weight. Stocks in our coverage universe that we believe are positioned to benefit include the following.

Innovation may be hard to define but, to borrow from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles, to a large degree - have moved overseas, where costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy is at its largest point in history and still growing. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products and services, and moving into new markets and applications, the domestic economy would be contracting, not expanding, and capital would not be flooding into the country. Particularly at this juncture of the market and economic cycles, when uncertainty is high due to high inflation and rising interest rates, we look to innovative companies to successfully navigate the challenges. At Argus, an 88-year-old independent research firm that has innovated a time or two in its long history, we have focused on four types of innovative companies: Industry Disruptors; First to Market; New Product Specialists; and Product & Process Perfectors. Here are some examples of companies, featured in our Innovation Theme Model Portfolio.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

Innovation may be hard to define. But to borrow from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where labor and materials costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the current period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as vaccines) and services (such as Zoom calls) and moving into new markets and applications, the domestic economy would not be growing, and capital would not be flooding into the country. The current high level of the U.S. dollar relative to currencies around the world attests to the confidence that global investors have in the durable and innovative U.S. economy.

Stocks were flat on Monday morning at the start of a heavy earnings week. Charles Schwab shares, which fell sharply in the wake of the Silicon Valley collapse, rose nearly 3% after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. On the negative side, State Street Corp. fell 13% after posting below-consensus 1Q earnings, hurt by lower fee income. The Dow rose 0.1%, the S&P was flat, and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%. Crude oil traded near $82 per barrel while gold fell $10 to $2005 per ounce.

In 1Q23, stocks continued to recover from the bear-market lows of 2022, with the S&P 500 rising 7% for the quarter. Performance was led by last year's laggard sectors, including Communication Services and Technology. Last year's top-performing sector, Energy, was the worst in 1Q23. Financial Services, including banks, were not far ahead. The average stock in the Argus Universe of Coverage rose 4% in the quarter; the median stock advanced 2%. The average BUY-rated stock rose 5.4% and the average HOLD-rated stock gained 3.4%. Recently, we raised our sector rating on Technology to Over-Weight, and expect outperformance into 2Q -- especially if interest rates head lower. We also raised our rating on Financial Services, and the bottom five stocks in our list point to potential value opportunities.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

California-based SVB Financial Group was taken over by regulators last Friday due to inadequate liquidity and insolvency; SIVB equity shareholders have been wiped out. The collapse has reverberated on Wall Street in a sharp downturn in bank stocks as investors worry about a contagion impact on the banking industry. We believe the reaction has been overblown. Silicon Valley Bank was a special situation in two ways. First, deposits at the bank accounted for about 90% of funding, versus 65% for the average bank, leaving the bank susceptible to funding shortfalls from a relatively small base of depositors. As well, the bank was deeply concentrated in holding deposits for technology start-ups, which have been unable to access the capital markets due to a downturn in capital raising and were thus funding operations by draining their deposits from prior fund raisings. While depositors with more than the FDIC cap of $250,000 will face uncertain timing on recovery of funds, we view deposits as a zero sum game. Funds pulled from one bank will be allocated to another. Banks routinely face interest-rate cycles and hold a large amount of fixed-income assets, sometimes at gains, other times at losses. But default risk is really non-existent and gains/losses are zero if held to maturity. SVB's issue was having received a large amount of deposits and having invested them when rates were very low, and then being asked for those deposits back after rates moved considerably higher -- leaving it with short-term losses. Larger banks have far better distribution among funding sources (such as a greater number of depositors and short-term borrowings). Larger banks also are subject to stringent stress tests on a range of severe economic scenarios and have abundant capital requirements. Smaller banks with large exposure to single sectors may be at risk, so we would focus on larger banks in this risk-off environment. Here is a list of BUY-rated Financial sector stocks in Argus' universe of coverage that fell sharply last week and offer value, in our opinion.

Fourth-Quarter 2022 Review and Outlook for 2023

The long-term trend in the U.S. stock market has been higher. Since 1980, stocks have turned in positive performances almost 80% of the time. The average annual gain has been 13%. That was not the case in 2022. Sure, the S&P 500 set an all-time record. But it peaked on January 3, and the rest of the year was downhill. The stock market technically entered a bear market in June. Bond returns weren't much better, as spiking inflation pushed long-term interest rates higher and the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates to try to bring inflation under control. The turmoil in the marketplace posed a challenge for Wall Street firms, as investment returns were dismal, the IPO market dried up, and M&A activity disappeared. By year-end, Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were announcing layoffs. Looking ahead, we are more optimistic for stocks in 2023. For one thing, equity valuations are lower in the wake of the sharp sell-off in 2022. For another, there is pent-up demand for IPOs and M&A, once the environment improves. Finally, consensus expectations call for weak 2023 earnings and investment returns, setting the markets up for a positive surprise. As the outlook for financial firms improves, we think investor demand will pick-up for investment banks, exchanges, and money management firms. Stocks in our Universe of Coverage that are in position to benefit include the following.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Last week, the headline that came from the insider-transaction data supplied by Vickers Stock Research was that insider sentiment on the Nasdaq was noticeably weaker than on the NYSE. That said, overall insider sentiment remained bullish - as it has been since early September. This week, Nasdaq insiders again remains more cautious than others do, but not to the same degree as last week. And, again, overall insider sentiment remains bullish.

Second-Quarter Review and Outlook for the Second Half of 2022

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Stocks rose on Tuesday morning as investors weighed 1Q earnings reports from a range of major companies. Johnson & Johnson shares rose 3% following better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and a significant dividend hike. However, the company also lowered its full-year earnings forecast due to strength in the U.S. dollar and suspended guidance for COVID vaccine sales. On the economic front, the IMF lowered its 2022 global growth forecast to 3.6%, down from a prior 4.4% and growth of 6.1% in 2021. The Dow rose 1.0%, the S&P 1.2%, and the Nasdaq 1.6%. Crude oil fell more than 4% to about $103 per barrel, while gold fell $32 to $1954 per ounce.

Our rating on the Financial Services sector is Over-Weight. Based on positive vaccine developments and actions from the administration in Washington, interest rates have started to move higher at the long end of the yield curve. We expect banks to benefit from wider net interest margins and lower loan-loss provisions as the economy normalizes. We also expect insurance companies to generate higher income in their investment portfolios. The sector accounts for 10.7% of the S&P 500, down from 16.3% following the exclusion of Real Estate stocks. Over the past five years, the weighting has ranged from 9% to 17%. We think the sector should account for 11%-12% of diversified portfolios. Here is how we use our analysts' Financial Services sector ideas in our Focus List and Model Portfolios. All of the following stocks currently are rated BUY at Argus.

While stocks have fallen since the start of 2022, current insider sentiment remains reassuringly benign. Indeed, the overall Insider Index from Vickers Stock Research is resting at its most-attractive level since November 2020. As expected now that earnings season is in full swing, insider trading volume has dropped from recent robust levels, with only 856 insider transactions meeting the criteria this week for inclusion in Vickers' Weekly Insider Report.

Sustainable Impact Investing is gaining traction with the global investment community. In January 2020, BlackRock CEO Lawrence Fink, who oversees approximately $9 trillion in assets, announced that his firm would be investing in companies that are making progress on sustainability. He doubled down in his January 2021 letter, calling on company managements to disclose their plans for making their businesses "compatible with a net-zero economy" by 2050. As assets have flowed in over the past 40 years, Sustainable Impact Investing has evolved. The discipline, originally known as Socially Responsible Investing, focused at first on excluding companies that conducted business in South Africa, or participated in industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. But the performance of these initial strategies lagged, and the approach has been modified. Now, instead of merely identifying industries to avoid, the discipline promotes "sustainable" business practices across all industries that can have an "impact" on global issues such as the climate, hunger, poverty, disease, shelter, and workers' rights.