From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

It’s still messy out there, no matter where you look.

Signs of strength are fleeting, whether we’re discussing gold, the S&P 500, or US Treasuries. It’s one of the few observations everyone agreed upon last week at the 50th annual CMTA Symposium. (I’ll have more on that later this week.)

Despite failed breakouts and trading ranges ruling the market environment, one bullish data point stand out regarding precious metals…

Silver!

Check out silver futures finding support at a critical polarity zone:

The 24.75 level acted as support last spring before giving way to increased selling pressure. By the end of last year and into early 2023, the same price level became resistance.

This is the principle of polarity in action, as the forces of supply and demand continue to highlight the level’s importance. 

I have to give silver the benefit of the doubt as long as it holds above that critical level. 

The same is true for the iShares Silver Trust ETF $SLV, as the comparable price stands at 22.50:

Risks remain to the upside if SLV trades above the...

As we're starting to get the latest round of earnings reports into the rear-view mirror, we're getting some clarity on the next crop of leaders for a potential move higher in the stock market.

Today's trade is on an emerging leader in the Defense sector that positions us very offensively for the next move up.

Let's get to it!

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

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

Today’s hot list is a long one with many executives rushing to buy shares following the first quarter earnings blackout period.

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Chicago Pacific Founders.

The firm reported a purchase of roughly $5.5 million in Polaris $PII.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Happy May!

Here we are, and we have another busy week ahead of us.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs. We’ve also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It’s got all the big names and more--but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here’s this week’s list:

...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The market was full speed ahead today, and this week looks like just a blip on the chart.

At the rate we're going we can see 421 on $SPY.

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

I was in New York City most of the week for the annual CMT Symposium.

On Wednesday afternoon I dropped by Fox Business to chat with Liz Claman about the ongoing bull market that is now on Month #11.

My point in the hit was that a lot of the focus seems to be on these tiny little irrelevant banks disappearing, instead of actual important companies with real market caps.

Just to put things in perspective, First Republic is worth less than a billion dollars. So that and zero may as well be the same thing.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Wednesday was up over $140 Billion in market cap overnight.

So if that's the case, why should anyone care about First Republic?

As long as the market doesn't care, I definitely don't.

Here's the interview in full:

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

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

As far as earnings go, $AMZN and $GOOGL for Big Tech were the weak links.

$QQQ is almost at its peak price.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

That was a stick save by $META, and now we have $AMZN tonight.

$QQQ came back above the 316 level I've been talking about inside the live trading room.

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

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Enphase Energy $ENPH director T.J. Rodgers.

Rodgers, who is the founder of Cypress Semiconductor and also holds a patent for a wine-making press, reported a purchase of roughly $5 million of ENPH.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

If you look under the hood, overall this market is weak.

Without Big Tech, there really isn't too much to talk about, except maybe commodities.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!

One way we're doing this is by identifying the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey...