Research Reports

Aurora Cannabis, headquartered in Edmonton, Canada, cultivates and sells medicinal and recreational cannabis through a portfolio of brands that includes Drift, San Rafael '71, Daily Special, Whistler, Being, and Greybeard. Although the company primarily operates in Canada, it has expanded internationally through medical cannabis exporting agreements.

Aurora Cannabis, headquartered in Edmonton, Canada, cultivates and sells medicinal and recreational cannabis through a portfolio of brands that includes Drift, San Rafael '71, Daily Special, Whistler, Being, and Greybeard. Although the company primarily operates in Canada, it has expanded internationally through medical cannabis exporting agreements.

Stocks are trading lower on Wednesday morning ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve minutes. Turning to stocks, shares of Nvidia (NVDA) are down today, with the company reporting earnings today after market close. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, the Dow was down $0.2% and the Nasdaq lost 0.5%. Crude oil traded near $77.50 per barrel, while gold fell nearly $4 to $2036 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.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.

Alternative investments often are added to diversified portfolios in order to hedge against stock- and bond-market weakness, and reduce the riskiness of overall portfolio returns. At least that's what the textbooks say. Real-time market performance can often be another matter. Of all the alternatives in the marketplace, oil and gold often zig when the broad U.S. equity market zags, and can serve as relatively dependable alternative options. For example, in 2022, the S&P 500 plunged 19% while oil prices rose 4% and gold was steady. Last year was a strong year for stocks, and oil tumbled. Of course, there are years when all move in lockstep, such as 2019, when the three assets increased in the range of 20%-30%. For our asset allocation models in our Investment Portfolio Guide, we typically have alternatives constitute up to 2%-4% of the portfolios. And, given the early stage of the current equity bull market, we recommend an under-weighting in alternatives. While we still think it is early to be adding volatile Bitcoin-related securities to our model portfolios, we are encouraged about the long-term opportunities for blockchain technology. Though performing well this year, Bitcoin lost 65% in 2022. That stings. We will re-consider an exposure to cryptocurrencies once the sector approaches total market capitalization of $5 trillion, or when the regulatory outlook becomes clearer.

Tuesday was another risk-off day. Losses for the small-, mid-, and mega-cap indices were between 0.6% to 1.4%. The 11 S&P 500 (SPX) sectors reflected the risk-off mood, with Consumer Staples (XLP +1.1%) the only sector to rise, while Utilities (XLU) and Real Estate (XLRE) booked tiny losses. The biggest losses were from Technology (XLK -1%), with Consumer Discretionary (XLY) and Energy (XLE) both off 0.9%. The market is probably in wait-and-see mode ahead of some monster quarterly reports this week.

We've seen growing evidence of rotation away from mega-cap tech. Indeed, even a textbook 'impressive' beat can lead to a 'sell the news' reaction for these stocks. Betting on more near-term upside from these stocks, no matter what they report, is a tough technical game as they all have extreme 14-day and 14-week Relative Strength Index (RSI) readings in the high 70s to mid-80s.