Stocks rose on Monday morning as investors weighed more 2Q earnings reports, M&A news, and prospects for an infrastructure deal in Washington. Payments firm Square Inc. rose nearly 9% after announcing that it would purchase Australia's Afterpay Ltd. for $29 billion. Manufacturing data showed continued expansion, but came in slightly below consensus. The Institute for Supply Management said that its index of national factory activity fell to 59.5 in July, down from 60.6 in June and below the Reuters consensus of 60.9. The Dow, the S&P, and the Nasdaq were all up about 0.4%. Crude oil traded near $72.50 per barrel, while gold rose slightly to $1818 per ounce.

This edition features our midyear auto outlook; a moat upgrade for Nvidia; new solar coverage; and notes from VMware, Pentair, and Biogen.

SolarEdge Technologies designs, develops, and sells direct current optimized inverter systems for solar photovoltaic installations. The company system consists of power optimizers, inverters, and cloud-based monitoring platform and addresses a broad range of solar market segments, from residential solar installations to commercial and small utility-scale solar installations. The company sells its products directly to solar installers, engineering, procurement, and construction firms and indirectly to solar installers through distributors and electrical equipment wholesalers. Additionally, the company has nonsolar products targeting the energy storage, e-mobility, and ultracritical power solutions industries.

Enphase Energy Inc delivers energy management technology for the solar industry. The company designs, develops, manufactures, and sells home energy solutions that connect solar generation, energy storage, and management on one intelligent platform. Its product and service portfolio consists of Enphase Microinverters, Enphase Envoy, Enphase Enlighten, Enphase Energy Services, and Enphase Storage System. Geographically, it derives a majority of revenue from the United States.

Many sentiment indicators remain elevated. Although we don't give much weight to this data, we can't deny that it represents impressive and consistent optimism. The enthusiasm comes from CBOE put/call ratios (P/C), Rydex data, small-trader option activity, hedge fund exposure, and the AAII stock allocation.

Stocks kept the momentum going in June and maintain a performance lead over bonds at the halfway mark of the year. Looking ahead, our Stock-Bond Barometer model is close to equally balanced between stocks and bonds for long-term investors. In other words, these asset classes should be near their normal weights in diversified portfolios. We have looked for large-cap companies with strong balance sheets and experienced management teams to be the leaders during the eventual recovery from COVID-19. This has played well -- and now, with vaccines being distributed, small-cap risks are reduced. Our recommended exposure to small- and mid-caps is now 15% of equity allocation, in line with the benchmark weighting. U.S. stocks have outperformed global stocks over the trailing five-year period. We expect this trend to continue, given volatile global economic and currency conditions. That said, international stocks offer favorable near-term valuations, and we target 15%-18% of equity exposure to the group. Value has been a surprise leader in 2021. We anticipate that growth, led by Tech and Healthcare, will recover and outperform value, led by Energy and Materials, as long as interest rates remain low.

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 were mixed on Monday morning, with strong gains in the Consumer Staples, Industrial, and Utility sectors and losses in Technology and Communication Services. Marriott shares fell 3% after the company posted lower-than-expected 1Q earnings, reflecting weak bookings in its core U.S. market. Tyson shares also fell, despite better-than-expected fiscal 2Q results, after management warned that rising costs would weigh on margins in the second half of the year. The Dow rose 0.8%, the S&P was flat, and the Nasdaq fell 1.4%. Crude oil traded near $64.50 per barrel, while gold rose $9 to $1839 per ounce.

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.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) saw a minor breakout last Wednesday, finishing at $63.15/barrel and back above its 50-day average. That followed several weeks of consolidation. Since the peak near $68 on March 8, crude oil completed a head-and-shoulders top, but bullishly did not see any downside follow through. That said, WTI did not see any upside follow through either, falling back into its range.