From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We saw some big gaps for the indices all around today.

It's hard to take trades when it's like this, as the move in most stocks came overnight.

If it can't rally in this market, what happens if the market pauses or pulls back?

I was looking for a good short exposure candidate to balance out my portfolio a little bit and I came across this bearish idea the team published this week that makes a lot of sense for a quick hit if we get it right.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

Today’s Hot List is a short one.

Pierce Norton, the president and CEO of ONEOK Inc $OKE, filed a Form 4 revealing a purchase of the oil and gas stock.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

Monday is an early close for the market, and today is month-end, quarter-end, and options expiration. $SPY is right into the gap I spoke about all week at 438.97.

Let's see how its holds today.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Messy, messy, messy.

If there’s one market description I’ve grown tired of more than others – it’s "messy." It’s my pain trade. 

Interest rates, the US dollar, crude oil, gold – you name it! – all are trendless and range-bound.

One of our viewers during yesterday’s live What the FICC? episode offered up an alternative description: ambiguous. I like it!

But there’s one area of the fixed-income, commodity, and currency landscape poised to break free from this ambiguity…

US real yields!

Check out the US five-year real yield challenging a shelf of former highs:

Yes, we’re talking about yields. But I see a potential bullish continuation pattern. 

Remember, we like buying...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a very mixed market today, with a lot of weakness.

$DIA and $IWM led the pack.

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

The most significant transaction on today's list comes in a Form 4 filing by Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett just bought an additional 2,138,250 shares in Occidental Petroleum Corp $OXY. This is his first purchase in almost a month.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

I mentioned yesterday in the Live Trading Room that $SPY can head into its gap at 438.97 this week.

The market is happy because all banks passed their stress tests.

Sector rotation is the lifeblood of a bull market.

We saw it at the beginning of the year as the laggards caught up to the leaders.

Remember, in the back half of last year, almost everything was working, EXCEPT large-cap growth stocks.

What are the best performers this year? Large-cap growth stocks.

More recently, we've seen rotation into Small-caps and Industrial stocks that were the underperformers in the early part of 2023.

This is perfectly normal behavior for bull markets.

In bear markets you see the opposite. In bear markets, the leaders tend to catch down to the laggards.

This is definitely not that.

So what's the bet?

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We...