Chart of the Day: 52-Week High for QQQ
Bespoke’s Weekly Sector Snapshot — 5/18/23
Nasdaq Outperforms The DJIA By a Bull Market
Every day it seems the gap just keeps getting wider, and today the YTD performance spread between the Nasdaq and the DJIA widened out to over 20 percentage points – or the equivalent of the traditional threshold for a bull market. As of Thursday afternoon, the Nasdaq was up 20.4% YTD while the DJIA was barely hanging above the unchanged line with a gain of 0.3%. Since the Nasdaq launched in early 1972, there have only been three other years where the index outperformed the DJIA by more than 15 percentage points YTD through 5/18, but 2023 is on pace to go down as the only year where the performance gap exceeded 20 percentage points.
The question going forward is, will the Nasdaq continue its outperformance for the remainder of the year, or will the DJIA step up and play catch up? There have only been three other years where the Nasdaq even outperformed by 15 percentage points at this point in the year, but below we have provided a snapshot of both indices during those three years. For each set of charts, we show the performance of each index in the top charts where the gray shading shows the period from the start of the year through 5/18. Underneath each of those charts, we also show the relative strength of the Nasdaq versus the DJIA where a rising line indicates outperformance on the part of the Nasdaq and vice versa.
Of the three years shown, the Nasdaq continued to outperform the DJIA by a wide margin for the remainder of the year in two of them (1991 and 2020). In 1983, on the other hand, the Nasdaq actually declined 8.2% for the remainder of the year giving up all of its prior outperformance as the DJIA rallied 4.6%.
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The Bespoke 50 Growth Stocks — 5/18/23
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. The Bespoke 50 is updated weekly on Thursday unless otherwise noted. There were ten changes to the list this week.
The Bespoke 50 is available with a Bespoke Premium subscription or a Bespoke Institutional subscription. You can learn more about our subscription offerings at our Membership Options page, or simply start a two-week trial at our sign-up page.
To see all 50 stocks that currently make up the Bespoke 50, simply start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.
The Bespoke 50 performance chart shown does not represent actual investment results. The Bespoke 50 is updated weekly on Thursday. 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 each week. 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.
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 5/18/23 – A Facebook Anniversary
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““This was not our finest hour, we’re not happy with our performance.” – Robert Greifeld, Nasdaq CEO May 2012
Below is a snippet of content from today’s Morning Lineup for Bespoke Premium members. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium now to access the full report.
In addition to Walmart (WMT) earnings, which were released earlier this morning, we have a busy day of economic data. Jobless claims and the Philly Fed were just released, and at 10 AM we’ll get the release of Existing Home Sales and Leading Indicators. Existing Home Sales are expected to decline from 4.4 million down to 4.3 million, and Leading Indicators are also expected to decline 0.6 points continuing what has been a miserable stretch for that series.
Jobless claims were modestly lower than expected on both an initial and continuing basis, and the Philly Fed report was less bad than forecast, coming in at -10.4 versus forecasts for a reading of -20.0 and last month’s very weak reading of -31.3. In reaction to the reports, futures have sold off modestly, and are currently pointing to a flat open.
Eleven years ago today, officials from the Nasdaq, as well as reporters from every business network and many other mainstream news outlets, flew to Menlo Park for the “remote” IPO of Facebook. The company raised $16 billion in what was the largest technology offering of all time. In the 11 years since its launch, Facebook (FB) – now Meta Platforms (META) – has rallied 538% for an annualized gain of 18.3%. Over that same period, the S&P 500 gained ‘just’ 290% which works out to an annualized gain of 13.2%. Based simply on the performance of the stock relative to the S&P 500, the Facebook IPO was a huge thumbs up.

It hasn’t been a smooth ride for the company, though – both in and out of the market. Right from the start of the company’s life as a public company, Facebook has had more than its fair share of drama. On the day of the IPO, trading was delayed by over a half hour due to a technical glitch, and while the stock initially rallied, it quickly sold off and struggled to hold its IPO price by the close of trading. Without underwriter support, the stock wouldn’t have held its IPO price on its first day of trading which is considered a cardinal sin for underwriters. From there, it only got worse as the stock traded steadily lower. In the first three months of trading after the IPO date, FB traded lower on over 60% of trading days for a total decline of over 60% from the intraday IPO day high. Facebook was quickly looking like the Titanic of IPOs.

Obviously, we all know with hindsight that Facebook recovered from that rocky start, and while that 61% peak-to-trough decline was extreme, it wasn’t even the largest drawdown in the stock’s history. As shown below, the most recent decline of over 75% from the 2021 high blows that initial decline out of the water. Even now with the stock up over 175% from its low last November, META is still down 37% from its all-time high, which would still rank as one of the larger drawdowns in the stock’s history.

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Daily Sector Snapshot — 5/17/23
Bespoke Baskets Update — May 2023
Chart of the Day: Up Days Returning
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 5/17/23 – Optimism Over Debt Ceiling
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“Success is making ourselves useful in the world” – George Dayton, Founder of Target
Below is a snippet of content from today’s Morning Lineup for Bespoke Premium members. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium now to access the full report.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are still talking tough regarding the debt ceiling, but there are signs of progress being made as President Biden has announced that he will cut short his trip to Asia. In response, futures were rallying ahead of the April release of Housing Starts and Building Permits. Starts were right in line with forecasts (1.401 million vs 1.400 million) and Building Permits were shy of forecasts (1.416 million vs 1.430 million). Regarding starts, though, the March reading was revised significantly lower from 1.420 million down to 1.371 million. Building Permits, however, experienced a modest upward revision. Futures are still in positive territory on the news, but off slightly from their pre-release level.
On the earnings front, retailers continue to take center stage, and after yesterday’s report from Home Depot (HD) where the company noted softer sales trends post the SVB collapse, Target (TGT) management had similar comments.
We still have another day left until Walmart (WMT) marks the unofficial end to earnings season, but this morning we wanted to take a quick look at how stocks have recently performed during the earnings ‘on’ and ‘off-seasons. The red lines in the chart below show the performance of the S&P 500 from the time of JP Morgan’s (JPM) report to WMT. While the first two earnings seasons of 2020 were not friendly for stocks, the next three were very positive periods for the market. Unlike the last three earnings seasons, performance during the current period has been remarkably sideways. On the surface, the lack of much upside during the current earnings season may be considered a negative signal. Then again, when you consider the fact that the market started to sell off after each of the last three earnings rallies, maybe the lack of an earnings rally means the odds of a post-earnings hangover are less likely.

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