In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling XLV position to July options
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

Every day, we sift through the filings to spot where the real conviction lies — cutting through the noise to highlight the most meaningful insider moves.

Here's what stood out today:

📌 Globalstar Inc.  $GSAT – Executive Chairman James Monroe III came in once more to buy his stock as it sits smack in the middle of a multi-year range. This is his eighth purchase year to date. 

📌 Plug Power $PLUG – CFO Paul Middleton came in with a Form 4 purchase, scooping up $250,000 of his stock as it trades at its lowest level in more than 20 years. 

We pay extra close attention to C-suite purchases. Only time will tell if this is an insider buying at a bargain or a forced vote of confidence.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from May 19, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

📌...

There weren’t any S&P 500 earnings reactions yesterday…

But over in small-cap land, one stock just made a statement.

Let’s talk about Porch Group $PRCH.

A $1 billion vertical software platform that serves the home services and real estate industries. They help streamline everything from home inspections to insurance, moving, and repairs—all from a centralized platform.

For years, Porch was stuck in the penalty box. But that seems to be changing right now.

In its latest earnings report, the company posted a surprise profit, beat revenue expectations, and raised full-year guidance. 

The market was expecting the company to report a loss of $0.11 per share. Instead, they reported a gain of $0.08 per share.

That's a beat of 170%! 

This was a significant development for a company that has been fighting to prove its model scales. 

The market has taken note of their actions, and shareholders are being handsomely rewarded.

After the report, PRCH exploded higher, leaving behind a monster earnings gap 👇

Now, just a few days later, Porch Group is consolidating in a tight bullish continuation pattern...

Target didn't have to be "Great" today. They didn't even have to be good. 

Since briefly becoming America's retail comfort food during COVID Target has been on an epic run of failure. The misses have only been interrupted only by short periods of optimism which quickly proved to be misplaced. The trend has been irreversibly lower and the stock shows it. Shares are off 65% from the all-time highs of late 2021 and 25% YTD. 

With all that widely known, all Target had to do "beat expectations" this morning was show any type of pulse. 

Instead, Target turned in the worst earnings report of the quarter among the majors. This had something for everyone. Target missed on every metric. Comp-store sales fell 5.7% which is just... holy crap levels of terrible, compared to Walmart or TJX (which also disappointed with comps only up 3%).

The only gains were in Legal Settlements and same-day delivery, which are One Time and Unprofitable, respectively.

Make no mistake, this is a disaster:

Target is going in the wrong direction at an increasing rate. The company looks old, sloppy and out of ideas. Shares might bounce but there's no reason...

Today's number is... 35%

Over 35% of S&P 500 stocks are above their December 2024 highest high.

Here’s the chart:

 Let's break down what the chart shows:

•  The blue line in the top panel shows the price of the S&P 500 index.
• The black line in the bottom panel is the percentage of S&P 500 stocks that are above their December 2024 highest high.

The Takeaway: Right now, over 35% of S&P 500 stocks are trading above their December 2024 highest high.

That’s the most we’ve seen since February 19, 2025.

This matters because December is when I first saw signs of weakness.

Momentum was slowing. Trends were rolling over. Fewer stocks were hitting new highs. 

At the same time, more stocks were declining than advancing.

Sentiment was bearish—even while the index was still pushing new highs.

That told me the surface strength didn’t match what was happening underneath. So I anchored to the December highest highs as a key level. If stocks were below...

Nice comeback run for IBM.  That being said, an upper target has appeared and it's one we should take seriously.  IF long THEN think of taking some profit or tightening the stop as this level approaches.  Don't short until we have a 'monthly' Signal Reversal Candle (SRC).  We have some time for that ... However, this level should provide some stiff resistance for higher on IBM, if not stop it in its tracks.  OBTW, next target is in the low 400's.  We'll take a peak at that but first this pattern needs to fail before we discuss.  Below is the BUY pattern present at the lows of this swing. What a run.

Here's the long term 'log scale' projection ...

Utilities - what a run! 

Take a look at the chart ... we have a near perfect projection (percentage) and a 3 drives to a top pattern ...all on a Monthly chart!

Folks, this is a VERY important PATTERN and one which could signal a very big top in the Utilities.  About 8% to go ...

Put this on the radar.

I’m liking energy more and more with each passing day.

And the bull thesis couldn’t be simpler.

It’s a raging bull market for stocks around the world. It’s being led by offense. 

Internals continue to improve. 

And like any bull cycle, as time passes and the market grinds higher, it drags a growing list of non-performers higher with it.

Some call it rotation, but it’s really just a broadening of participation over longer timeframes. 

What I mean is that more groups join the party as the bull market progresses. The ones that had previously not been working, start working. We see it every time.

In bull markets, the laggards catch up to the leaders. And not vice versa.

And it’s happening now, isn’t it?

Look at international markets. Even the worst-performing regions, like Southeast Asia and South America, are now working. They’re actually outperforming in the short-term.

And in the US, look at old laggards like small-caps, speculative growth, and transports. They are working too,...

Would you look at that — Greece ($GREK) just topped our global ETF Power Rankings.

Despite making progress on its debt issues, Greece remains relatively fragile compared to the rest of Europe. So what does it tell us when GREK is leading all global ETFs?

It’s up an impressive +35% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 has barely moved, up just +1.6%.

Take a look at how GREK has performed since the most recent tariff drama that weighed down global markets.

One of the most important themes shaping the 2025 investment landscape is the growing number of opportunities outside the U.S.

Forgotten markets — like much of the Eurozone — are surprising investors with their strength.

And we think that trend is just getting started.

Sign up for my free note here.

We just flipped the script—and it happened fast. In a matter of weeks, we’ve gone from full-blown washout to a full-speed rebound. 

We’re in the middle of a textbook V-shaped recovery. And we’re seeing rotation back into risk assets, which supports the bullish action in the broader market. 

The bulls are back in control.

Just look at Industrials $XLI. It is now the first sector ETF to reclaim its all-time highs and complete the V.

This...

The gold bugs are getting louder.

And frankly, they should be. The weight of the evidence is stacking up in their favor.

We’re not just talking about price action here, although that’s been impressive on its own. 

The intermarket relationships and momentum dynamics are all confirming what the charts have been whispering for months.

This is an uptrend. A real one. And it’s just getting started.

Let’s walk through two key charts that tell the story.

The first time I opened a brokerage account, I didn’t know what the hell relative strength was.

I just bought dips.

In 2008…

And like clockwork, the market kept falling... and I lost everything in that little account.

Every damn dollar.

I remember thinking, “How do people actually learn to trade? Is this even possible?” It felt impossible at the time. But deep down, I knew I’d figure it out, I had to.

Fast forward a few years—I'd devoured every book, article, chart, and white paper I could find on relative strength (not to be confused with RSI—different beast).

Relative strength compares an asset’s performance to a broader index. If it drops less or climbs more, it’s showing strength. And strength attracts capital. Leaders lead. That’s the game.

But this flew in the face of everything I was ever taught…

Buy low, sell high... Where does that logic even...

While most of the heavyweights have already reported their quarterly earnings, there are still plenty of names left on the docket. And as always, earnings reports can be a powerful catalyst.

I used to fear earnings season. The old stock trader in me had it drilled in early: don’t hold into earnings. The risk of an overnight blow-up always loomed too large.

But now? I see it differently.

As an options trader, I can define my risk. And that’s a game-changer. I no longer automatically avoid stocks with earnings coming up. In fact, I often lean intothose setups now—especially when I see a trend that looks like it’s just waiting on a spark to resume.

Case in point: I’m putting on a new trade today in a stock from the global life sciences sector. It has earnings coming up, yes—but it also has a...

Today's trade is in a $39B leading provider of software solutions for the global life sciences sector that is on the verge of breaking multi-year highs with an eye towards making a run at all-time highs.

There is an earnings release coming up soon which I think will be the catalyst to get the move underway.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to XLC position.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

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.

Nowadays, 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 new...

Applied Materials $AMAT can’t catch a break.

The company reported mixed results last week, and the stock dropped 5.3% on Friday.

This marked its 5th consecutive negative earnings reaction. 

That’s not a one-off... 

That’s a trend, and not the good kind.

This is one of the most important names in the semiconductor supply chain. 

If this is how the market treats it after a decent report, we’ve got to ask: what’s really going on here?

Once again, price is running into overhead supply, and once again, sellers are showing up in force.

So what else did we learn from Friday's earnings reactions? Let’s dive into the details.

*Click the image to enlarge it

Take-Two Interactive Software $TTWO had the best reaction score after reporting mixed results.

The company reported revenues of $1.58B, versus the expected $1.55B, and earnings per share of $1.08, versus the expected $1.10.