From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

This morning it looked like we were heading into the abyss.

Then came a decent bounce, led by tech stocks.

As market volatility spreads to financial sectors around the globe, CEOs, CFOs, and directors of numerous US banks continue to buy stock in a big way.

Here are yesterday’s Form 4s:

• Coastal Financial Corporation $CCB.
• Fifth Third Bancorp $FITB.
• Lakeland Financial Corporation $LKFN.
• Byline Bancorp $BY.
• Brookline Bancorp $BRKL.
• Cullen/Frost Bankers $CFR.
• FB Financial Corporation $FBK.
• Customers Bancorp $CUBI.

However, the most notable insider activity from yesterday wasn’t a regional bank.

It was the largest brokerage in the US.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Well, they don't call it Schlump Day for nothing.

The market is getting hit this morning, as the bank mess could be spilling over to other sector.

Today, I'm watching to see how $SPY holds on to the 384 level. If not, we can head back down to 380.

This is the video recording of the March 15, 2023, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The $SPX rallied right to its 200-moving average, and it was rejected.

We bounced in the morning due to CPI, which was bullish for the market. Unfortunately the market is worried about other things.

Banks are really stinking up the joint.

The regional banking panic that began last week has caused a drastic repricing of financial stocks. 

As selling pressure accelerates for a variety of vulnerable banks, executives are coming out and buying shares in an effort to shore up the volatility and put a vote of confidence in their stock.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We've got CPI up at bat this morning.

I'm sure we'll see wild swings, so it's hard for me to pick a stock before the data.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Overall, I'll give the market credit: It hung on most of the day.

Tomorrow morning we have a CPI report, so that may be a different story.

The most significant insider transaction on today’s list comes in a 13D from Carl Icahn reporting an increase in his Southwest Gas Holdings $SWX stake.

Icahn now owns 12.64% of outstanding shares, a significant change from the 9.8% he reported on October 26.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The market is very erratic right now.

Last night the futures were as high as 3,970, and now we're back to 3,900.