Mar 26, 2026
The “Bespoke 50” is a basket of noteworthy growth stocks in the Russell 3,000. To make the list, a stock must have strong earnings growth prospects along with an attractive price chart based on Bespoke’s analysis. There was one change to the list this week.
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The Bespoke 50 performance chart shown does not represent actual investment results. The Bespoke 50 is updated monthly on Thursdays unless otherwise noted. Performance is based on equally weighting each of the 50 stocks (2% each) and is calculated using each stock’s opening price as of Friday morning after publication. Entry prices and exit prices used for stocks that are added or removed from the Bespoke 50 are based on Friday’s opening price. Any potential commissions, brokerage fees, or dividends are not included in the Bespoke 50 performance calculation, but the performance shown is net of a hypothetical annual advisory fee of 0.85%. Performance tracking for the Bespoke 50 and the Russell 3,000 total return index begins on March 5th, 2012 when the Bespoke 50 was first published. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. The Bespoke 50 is meant to be an idea generator for investors and not a recommendation to buy or sell any specific securities. It is not personalized advice because it in no way takes into account an investor’s individual needs. As always, investors should conduct their own research when buying or selling individual securities. Click here to read our full disclosure on hypothetical performance tracking. Bespoke representatives or wealth management clients may have positions in securities discussed or mentioned in its published content.
Mar 26, 2026
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- Thursdays have been the weakest day of the week for the S&P 500 over the past decade, and 2026 has no exception with nine consecutive weeks of Thursday declines.
- Over the past 50 trading days, the Energy sector has seen some of the highest consistency of daily gains on record.
- A hypothetical strategy of only owning the S&P 500 when it has been above its 50-DMA has underperformed a simple buy and hold strategy for decades.
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Mar 26, 2026
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Cintas’ (CTAS) Q3 2026 earnings call.
Cintas (CTAS) provides outsourced uniforms, workplace safety products, facility services, and fire protection solutions to over a million businesses, helping them manage essentials like employee apparel, compliance, and cleanliness. The company delivered another strong quarter with revenue up 8.9% to $2.84B (8.2% organic) and record gross margins across all route-based segments. Demand remains steady despite a “complex” macro backdrop, with resilience across healthcare, hospitality, and government customers. Growth continues to be fueled by new customer wins (two-thirds from “no-program” users, meaning customers previously handling everything themselves) and cross-selling into existing accounts. Management emphasized ongoing investment in SAP, route capacity, and sales resources to sustain above-GDP growth. Input costs like fuel and tariffs are manageable (about 1.7% of revenue), with no reliance on surcharges. The pending UniFirst acquisition adds scale, with closing expected in the second half of 2026. Guidance was raised, signaling confidence in continued momentum. The stock was down a modest 0.72% on 3/25…
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Mar 26, 2026
See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium. CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.
“When we have computers that can do more and more jobs, it’s going to change how we think about work. There’s no way around that. You can’t wish it away.” – Larry Page
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
There’s no joy in Marketville this morning as investors step up to the place for the opening bell. Nasdaq futures are down nearly 1% while the S&P 500 faces a gap down of 0.75% at the open. Treasury yields are higher across the curve, WTO and Brent crude oil are both up over 4%, gold is down 2.5%, and Bitcoin is down over 2%. Fun morning for the bulls!
With the five-day deadline imposed by the President, Monday fast approaching, and no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough, investors have no incentive to make a stand, and that doesn’t even take into account the government shutdown snarling air traffic. Maybe the only good news is jobless claims. Initial claims came in right inline with expectations, while continuing claims were well below forecasts, falling to a nearly two-year low.
In Asia, stocks reflected the pessimism as the Nikkei fell 0.3%, China declined 1.1%, and South Korea dropped the most, falling 3.2%. European stocks are doing no better. The STOXX 600 is down 1.0% halfway into the session, led lower by Germany and the UK, which are both down over 1.25%. ECB council member and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel even noted that a rate hike in April is “certainly an option”.
We’re now a month into the war in Iran, where every day’s news has shown images of precise strikes against the Iranian military. With all those weapons, it must be great for the defense contractors, right? Ironically, while aerospace and defense stocks performed well over the last year, they’ve seen a sell-the-news reaction since the war started. As shown in the chart of the iShares Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) below, the sector peaked on the first trading day after the first missiles were launched and has declined 10% since. That’s worse than the S&P 500!
Looking through a list of ITA’s 13 largest holdings (all greater than 2% weighting), performance this year has mostly been positive. Nine of the thirteen stocks are up YTD, with an average YTD gain of just under 9%. Like the ETF, though, most of the largest holdings are below their 50-DMAs. In total, their average 50-DMA spread is -4.2%, and they’re down an average of 2% in the last five trading days.
While defense stocks have struggled this month, Energy stocks have been on fire. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (XLE) started to go parabolic at the turn of the calendar and hasn’t looked back since.
The rally in the sector has been so strong that the spread between XLE’s price and 200-DMA exceeded 30% this week. Since the ETF’s inception in 1999, there have only been a few other periods where the spread exceeded 30%. The most recent was early in the Russia-Ukraine war, and before that, the only other occurrences were in the first half of 2021 as the economy reopened from Covid and then briefly in early 2011 when oil prices spiked due to the Arab Spring and a civil war in Libya.
Mar 25, 2026
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- Over the past six months the decline in the P/E ratio of Tech versus the S&P 500 has fallen by the largest amount since 2002.
- Performance this week has appeared to be largely rotational as the best performers were also those that were the worst performers month-to-date through Friday.
- After seasonal adjustment February saw the third-largest increase in ex petroleum import prices since monthly data begins at the end of the 1980s.
See today’s full post-market Closer and everything else Bespoke publishes by starting a 14-day trial to Bespoke Institutional today!
Mar 25, 2026
See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium. CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.
“It’s the rough side of the mountain that’s the easiest to climb; the smooth side doesn’t have anything for you to hang on to.” – Aretha Franklin
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
Paul Hickey appeared on Fox Business yesterday. To view the segment, click on the image below.
Global equity markets are in rally mode this morning after reports of potential negotiations between the US and Iran to end the war. Asian markets surged overnight, and that flowed into the European open and US futures this morning. Some of the air has come out of the balloon as we type this, though, on reports that Iranian officials have rejected the US terms delivered via Pakistan. There’s really no way to know at this point what the facts are regarding the state of negotiations, as neither side has any real incentive to conduct talks via the press, so expect more whipsaw action as things continue to progress. The bottom line is that while Iran still holds some cards, the chips are stacked heavily against them.
Outside of equities, the 10-year yield is down 5 bps, crude oil is down 5%, gold is up nearly 4%, and Bitcoin is up 2.5% to more than $71K.
In economic data, the only report on the calendar was Import Prices, which came in at more than double expectations (1.3% m/m vs 0.6%). If you’re looking for lower rates or a dovish Fed, these are not pretty numbers.
The S&P 500 finished down 0.37% yesterday, but most of the losses were focused in the trillion-dollar stock club, where the damage was much more concentrated. While the ‘average’ stock in the S&P 500 traded slightly higher yesterday, seven of the nine stocks in the trillion-dollar club traded lower, with an average of 1.2%. Stocks like Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) were notably weak with declines of more than 2.5%, and both closed at multi-month lows. Other mega-caps like Broadcom (AVGO), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Meta Platforms (META) all fell more than 1%. The only mega-caps to buck the trillion-dollar market cap weight were Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL), which saw modest gains.
While the trillion-dollar stocks have been market leaders, they’re no longer the cool-kids table in the lunchroom. For months, they stood out above the rest of the market as the most popular in terms of where they were trading relative to 52-week highs, but now they no longer stand out. MSFT, AVGO, META, and TSLA are all down more than 20% from their respective 52-week highs, and the average drawdown from their peaks is just over 20%. That’s flirting with bear market territory and slightly more than the average 19.9% drawdown for all 500 stocks in the S&P 500.
The cap-weighted S&P 500 (SPY) closed down just over 4% for the year yesterday, while the equal-weight version (RSP) is still slightly higher on the year (+0.2%), and their charts have two key differences.
First, as we’re all aware, the cap-weighted S&P 500 has been stuck in a sideways range for several months, forming a gradually curving, rounded top which accelerated when the war started at the turn of the month. The topping process for RSP was much sharper. From the start of the year right up until late February, RSP was steadily making new highs. Once the war broke out, though, the rally was stopped in its tracks, erasing two months’ worth of gains in less than a month.
Second, with RSP still holding on to gains for the year, it has also stayed above its 200-DMA. The same can’t be said for the S&P 500, which broke that level last Thursday. For now, bulls can rationalize SPY’s break of the 200-DMA by pointing to RSP still hanging on to that level. If both indices break that long-term average, though, bulls will have one less arrow in their quiver.
