Technicals
Position: None
Chart of the Day: TJX Heads Into Summer With Wind at Its Back
We’ve seen strong performance from this retailer as the summer shopping season gets underway.
The Power of Market Rotation
There was a quick bounce in tech stocks, but I don’t trust it to last. Meanwhile, I’m building a July shopping list.
Takeaways From the June Flash PMI Report
Let’s look through the data with an eye toward the continued fall in energy prices.
Getting Even More Chai
I have substantially increased by exposure to cannabis in the last five trading sessions.
Should prices remain depressed, I expect to continue to add.
I am repeating this column from May that summarizes my constructive investment outlook for the sector (updates are bold-faced):
—–
8 Reasons I’m Getting More Positive on Cannabis
I am growing much more optimistic on the cannabis complex.
I plan to super-size (VL) my MSOS holdings and I plan to expand individual equity positions (with emphasis on GTBIF and VRNO).
I am doing so because:
* I am extremely confident that rescheduling of both medical and adult use (recreational) will pass in the next few months. (The rescheduling of medical use has already been passed. Adult recreational use will likely follow in the next few months.)
* I am confident that uplistings will soon follow. (Trulieve has become the first cannabis company to list – TerrAscend, Curaleaf and Verano have announced their intentions to uplist on either the NYSE or Nasdaq. After Trulieve, which cannabis MSO will be the next to uplist?)
* More relaxed custodian rules allowing for institutional purchases of the group. (Uplistings and rescheduling will hasten relaxation of the custody.)
* The recent debt refinancings have eliminated the frightening debt maturity cliff that some feared. (Every single cannabis company has followed up the refinancings with recently announced company share repurchases.)
* Industry fundamentals (volumes and pricing) have stabilized. (This has been confirmed by recent company reports.)
* Expectations are very low. (And getting lower with a decline in share prices!)
* Massive absolute and relative underperformance over the last five years has created a long runway for appreciation.
* Upside reward is probably more than 5x downside risk. (With the decline in the space, the uplistings, buybacks and better business conditions, I would make that 6x.)
Position: Long MSOS common (L) and calls (S), VRNO (S), GTBIF (VS)
BY DOUG KASS · May 27, 2026, 4:33 PM EDT
—–
The next catalyst will likely be a rescheduling of cannabis for recreational use.
Position: Long MSOS (L), VRNO (S), GTBIF (S), TRLV (S), TSNDF (VS)
IBM Bucks the Bearish Trend — Why I’m in on This Quantum Computing Play
The reason is simple — and here’s the setup.
Tweet of the Day (Part Four)
Position: Short SPCX (VS)
Mid-Morning Market Stats
Volume
– NYSE volume 12% below its one-month average
– NASDAQ volume 15% above its one-month average
– VIX index: up 10.65% to 19.12
Breadth
Sector ETFs
% Movers
Position: None
Boockvar on Manufacturing PMI
From Peter Boockvar:
Manufacturing rebound continues but what now?
The S&P Global manufacturing PMI rose again to 55.7 from 55.1 and continues to be boosted by restocking of inventories. S&P Global said, “While there is better news from the manufacturing sector, we remain concerned as factory growth continues to be temporarily buoyed by inventory building amid supply fears. Supply delays grew more widespread in June.”
Also of note, “Most worrying was the further fall in employment, notably in the manufacturing sector. Factory job cuts are running at the highest since 2009 if the pandemic is excluded, reflecting concerns over the sustainability of the recent upturn in demand alongside worries over the escalating cost of raw materials.”
With pricing, “Although manufacturing input cost inflation moderated from May’s recent peak, it was the second highest for almost four years.” Prices charged were little changed m/o/m but at one year highs.
The service component does not include retail and wholesale trade nor construction which are key missing pieces of the US economy so we’ll rely on the ISM report next week instead.
This was the commentary on the outlook, and includes what they are seeing in the service categories they cover:
“Companies’ expectations for output in the year ahead improved in June to the brightest since February, lifting in both manufacturing and services. Improved outlooks were partly linked to hopes of an easing of war-related disruptions and price pressures. In both cases sentiment nonetheless remained well below long-run averages to point to historically subdued business confidence overall, often blamed on uncertainty over the economic outlook amid concerns relating to the ongoing impact of the war in the Middle East and government policies such as tariffs.”
Bottom line, the mixed and uneven economy continues on with the pockets of strength highly concentrated, as we know, in the AI data center construction and upper income spend, which is very dependent on the GenAI stock trade in turn lifting the indices. Also, as said here for months, the improvement in manufacturing is in part due to the front loading of orders and we’ll now see how it performs post Strait reopening.
US Manufacturing
