Chart of the Day – After Down Quarters
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 3/26/25 – Trading Places
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“You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you’re up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don’t go to college and they’ve repossessed your Bentley.” – Louis Winthorpe III, Trading Places
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
To view yesterday’s CNBC segment, please click on the image below, and you can read today’s Morning Lineup PDF at the link below:
After weeks of heightened volatility, markets are relatively quiet for the second straight day this morning. Enjoy the peace while it lasts! Futures were indicated lower overnight but are now slightly, and we stress the word slightly, positive. One place we aren’t seeing gains this morning is in Europe as the STOXX 600 is trading lower for the fourth time in five trading days.
Today’s economic calendar is light. The only report on the calendar is Durable Goods at 8:30. Economists expect the headline reading to fall 1% m/m after a 3.2% in January. Excluding Transports, the report is expected to show an increase of 0.2% after no change in January. Besides those two reports, we’ll also hear from two Fed speakers with Goolsbee speaking at 10:00 AM while Musalem’s comments will hit the tape just after 1:00 PM Eastern.
After trading above its 200-DMA for the first time in over two weeks Monday, the S&P 500 traded above that level for the entire session yesterday notching its third straight day of gains for the first time since early February. The S&P 500 closed above the 200-DMA, but with a cushion of just 0.4%, it has hardly been a convincing move. Given the narrow spread between the price and 200-DMA, there’s been a relatively even split between the number of sectors trading above their respective 200-DMAs. As of Tuesday’s close, six finished the day above that level while five finished below, and six finished the day within 2% of their 200-DMAs (three above and three below), so it wouldn’t surprise us to see sectors flip-flopping between trading above and below that long-term trend line.
Two sectors that flip-flopped positions in yesterday’s session were Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples. Starting with the Discretionary sector, Monday’s rally took the sector within spitting distance of the 200-DMA, but a late-day rally on Tuesday helped to push the sector marginally above it.
While the more cyclical Consumer Discretionary sector managed to reclaim its 200-DMA, the more defensive-oriented Consumer Staples sector traded down modestly below that level yesterday. It’s good from a market perspective to see Consumer Discretionary rallying while the defensive-oriented Staples sector lags, but at this point, rather than breaking down, the sector has simply been trendless. In each of the last six trading days, the sector closed within 1% of its 200-DMA; three of those closes were above and three were below. In other words, the only ones making money in the sector recently have been Duke & Duke.
The Closer – Quant Whipsaw, MAHA, Housing – 3/25/25
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we lead off with a look at the massive whipsaw in quant factors (page 1). We then check in on stocks impacted by MAHA (page 2) and the crowning of a new market cap king in Europe (page 3). After an update on the latest Treasury allotment data (page 4), we review the crude term premium (page 5) and latest housing data (pages 6 and 7). We round out tonight’s report with an update of regional Fed manufacturing data (pages 8 – 10).
See today’s full post-market Closer and everything else Bespoke publishes by starting a 14-day trial to Bespoke Institutional today!
Q1 2025 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: McCormick (MKC)
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 McCormick’s (MKC) Q1 2025 earnings call.
McCormick (MKC) is a global leader in flavor, manufacturing and distributing spices, seasonings, condiments, and flavor solutions to both consumers and industrial customers. Its products are household staples, like Lawry’s, Frank’s RedHot, and French’s mustard, and are also embedded behind the scenes in the foodservice and packaged food industries. MKC posted 2% organic sales growth driven by volume gains in both Consumer and Flavor Solutions segments, despite cautious consumer behavior globally. Consumers continue cooking at home and seeking value, boosting core categories like spices, gravy mixes, and hot sauce, where MKC outpaced private label for a third straight quarter. High-growth and QSR customers helped offset weak volumes from large CPG clients. The company maintained full-year guidance, expects gross margins to expand 50–100 bps, and plans to offset China tariff costs through cost savings. Management remains confident in long-term consumer trends favoring home-cooked, flavorful, healthier meals. MKC opened 4.1% lower on 3/25 but recovered most of it early in the trading day…
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Q1 2025 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: KB Home (KBH)
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 KB Home’s (KBH) Q1 2025 earnings call.
KB Home (KBH) is one the largest homebuilders in the US, focused primarily on first-time and first move-up buyers across the West Coast, Southwest, Southeast, and Central regions. The company builds personalized, energy-efficient homes under its Built to Order model, offering buyers design flexibility through its in-house studio. KBH’s Q1 call shined light on a slower-than-usual spring selling season, as macro uncertainty and declining consumer confidence led to reduced urgency among buyers. Net orders fell early in the quarter, but mid-February price cuts (averaging $15K per home) helped improve absorption to 5.1 net sales per community per month by quarter-end. Florida was the softest region, while Las Vegas remained a standout performer. Cycle times improved to 139 days for Built to Order homes, helping offset margin pressure. The company invested $920M in land, expanding its lot pipeline 41% YoY. Despite trimming revenue guidance to $6.6B–$7.0B, management remains confident, citing strong buyer credit profiles and improved sales momentum. The stock opened 8.8% lower on 3/25 but rallied early to erase most of the loss…
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Chart of the Day – Another Big Increase in Bearish Sentiment
10 Baggers and 100 Baggers
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the S&P 500’s closing high during the Dot Com Bubble. After rallying 14% in the month leading up to its peak on 3/24/2000, the S&P would go on to fall 25% over the next year and 49% at its low point in October 2002.
Had you bought the S&P 500 at the peak on 3/24/2000, you would have felt like the worst market timer in the world a year later. But eventually the market recovered, and if you rode it out and held through today, you would still have generated annualized gains of more than 7.5% if you bought on the day of the Dot Com Bubble peak. As the saying goes: time heals.
Within the Russell 1,000 (a larger large-cap index than the S&P 500), just over half of the stocks in the index now were around 25 years ago. These stocks have posted an average total return of more than 2,600% since 3/24/00. Just under 300 stocks in the index have been “10-baggers” in the last 25 years, meaning they’ve gone up 10x. But there are also nineteen stocks in the index that have been “100-baggers” since 3/24/00, meaning they’ve gone up at least 10,000%.
Below is a list of these nineteen “100-baggers.” For each stock, we provide its percentage change since 3/24/00, how much a $1,000 investment in the stock on 3/24/00 would be worth today, and a brief one-sentence description of what the company does.
While you may think that Tech stocks would dominate the list of biggest winners over the last 25 years, that’s not the case. Of the nineteen “100-baggers,” just four are in the Technology sector, while there are five Industrials and five Consumer Discretionary stocks.
The biggest winner by far, though, is a Consumer Staples stock: gas-station/convenience store energy-drink maker Monster Beverage (MNST). A $1,000 investment in MNST on 3/24/00 would be worth — wait for it — $1.275 million today! That’s double the return of the second-best performer — NVIDIA (NVDA).
Notably, Apple (AAPL) is the second-best performing Tech stock behind NVDA with a gain of 20,821%. It’s the stocks that sit just above and below Apple that are more interesting. Just above AAPL sits a farming supply retailer — Tractor Supply (TSCO) — with a gain of 26,036%, while an auto parts retailer — O’Reilly Auto (ORLY) — sits just below AAPL with a gain of 16,381%.
Below are some of the things that other 100-baggers do:
-Provides less-than-truckload freight shipping services (ODFL)
-Makes commercial and residential kitchen equipment (MIDD)
-Develops credit scoring and analytics software (FICO)
-Offers hazardous waste disposal and environmental services (CLH)
-Distributes HVAC equipment and refrigeration products (WSO)
-Provides kidney dialysis and healthcare services (DVA)
Good businesses that can execute can be found in any industry!
Along with the 25th anniversary of the Dot Com Bubble, 3/23 was the fifth anniversary of the market’s low point during the COVID Crash in 2020. Along with highlighting 100-baggers over the last 25 years, below is a list of stocks that have been 10-baggers (up at least 10x) in the last five years since the COVID low.
What’s most remarkable about this list is how many Energy stocks there are. Four of the five biggest winners are domestic oil and natural gas stocks: Antero Resources (AR), Targa Resources (TRGP), Matador Resources (MTDR), and Permian Resources (PR). Antero is up the most with a gain of just under 5,000%. The only non-Energy stock in the top five is bitcoin-holder MicroStrategy (MSTR), which is up 2,867% since 3/23/20.
Rounding out the top ten are video-game seller GameStop (GME), server-seller Super Micro (SMCI), energy-drink maker Celsius (CELH), AI chip-king NVIDIA (NVDA), and another oil and gas play: Ovintiv (OVV).
Other notables on the list of 10-baggers over the last five years include Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), Vertiv (VRT), Dillard’s (DDS), Comfort Systems (FIX), Vistra (VST), Quanta Services (PWR), Builders FirstSource (BLDR), and Broadcom (AVGO).
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 3/25/25 – Moving on Up
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“I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.” – Elon Musk
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
Futures have been drifting higher all morning and have just recently moved modestly into positive territory building on the optimism from yesterday’s session. When the day started yesterday, all the major index ETFs we track in our Trend Analyzer were at oversold levels, but after yesterday’s rally, we’ve seen a continuation of the uniformity where they have all moved out of oversold and into neutral territory.
While optimism that the planned tariffs from the trump Administration won’t be as draconian as feared helped boost the market yesterday, not much has changed. There’s still tons of uncertainty regarding what the planned policies will be, but lower prices do make those high levels of uncertainty more palatable. Today, we’ll get reports on New Home Sales and Consumer Sentiment, and investors will probably be most focused on how consumer sentiment has continued to evolve given all the uncertainty surrounding geopolitics, the economy, and trade/tariff policies. Also just released was the Philly Fed Non-Manufacturing report for March. That index collapsed from -13.1 to -32.5, the fifth negative reading in a row and the lowest since Spring 2020. When it comes to soft data, data remains very weak.
With a decline of over 31% year to date, it’s been a hangover of a year for shares of Tesla (TSLA). Elon Musk has become a lightning rod in American politics, and everyone reading this probably has strong opinions of him (in both directions). Sales of Tesla vehicles have slowed due to protests, rising competition, and slower overall sales in general. Incredibly, the stock is down over 40% from its high just over three months ago in mid-December, but it’s still 11% higher than it was on Election Day last year. That means it has outperformed more than 80% of stocks in the S&P 500 during that time!
The Closer – CFNAI, Technicals, Losing Streaks – 3/24/25
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we begin with a look at today’s readings on the CFNAI and flash PMIs (page 1). We then do a checkup on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s technicals (page 2 and 3) before diving into the notable losing streaks in the semiconductors and various S&P members (pages 4 and 5). We finish with some big moves in positioning data (page 6).
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