Report
Dave Nicoski ...
  • Ross LaDuke
EUR 203.26 For Business Accounts Only

Vermilion Compass: Weekly Equity Strategy

Breadth indicators mostly positive; Energy surging

While defensive sectors continue to lag, one cyclical sector, Energy, has surged to the top of our relative strength rankings. Though we continue to expect further consolidation and volatility, current sector leadership and mostly positive breadth indicators point to a risk-on environment. Bottom line: the 200-day moving average and prior lows on the S&P 500 need to continue holding as support for us to remain constructive.

• Breadth indicators mostly positive. Whether cap- or equal-weighted, Discretionary vs. Staples ratios remain favorable... see below. The S&P 500 percentage of stocks above their 200-day moving average, a long-term breadth indicator, continues to concern us. Other indicators (the percent of stocks above their 50-day moving average and the advance-decline line) remain constructive and are positively diverging... see page 2.

• 10-year Treasury yield and USD are on the verge of breaking out. We continue to watch the critical 3.00% resistance level on the 10-year, and, more importantly, the equity market's reaction to a potential move above this level. The U.S. Dollar is similarly on the cusp of a breakout, currently testing multiple resistance levels... see page 3.

• Sector Relative Strength Rankings. Just two weeks ago, Energy occupied the second worst ranking among our equal-weighted Sectors. Fast-forward to today and our Energy Sector sits atop the ranks... see page 4.

• Favor software-related stocks within Technology. Of our 13 Technology Groups currently hitting 3-month relative strength highs, 8 are software-related... see page 5.

• In today's report we highlight attractive and actionable groups within Energy and Health Care: EN-08 Oil and Gas E&P, Domestic, Large-Cap, HC-11 Cardiovascular Products, and HC-13 Surgical Devices & Equipment... see pages 10-21.
Underlyings
ABIOMED Inc.

ABIOMED is a provider of temporary mechanical circulatory support devices, and it provides a continuum of care to heart failure patients. The company's products include: Impella 2.5?, which is a percutaneous micro heart pump with an integrated motor and sensors; which is primarily used by either interventional cardiologists to support patients in the cath lab or by cardiac surgeons in the heart surgery suite; Impella 5.0 and Impella LD, which are percutaneous micro heart pumps with integrated motors and sensors for use primarily in the heart surgery suite; and Impella RP, which is a percutaneous catheter-based axial flow pump that is designed to allow more than four liters of flow per minute.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

Anadarko Petroleum is an independent exploration and production company. The company also participates in the hard-minerals business through royalty arrangements. The company's reporting segments are as follows: Exploration and Production, which is engaged in the exploration, development, production, and sale of oil, natural gas, and natural-gas liquids (NGLs) and in advancing its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project toward final investment decision; and WES Midstream and Other Midstream, in which these two segments engage in gathering, processing, treating, and transporting the company and third-party oil, natural-gas, and NGL production as well as gathering and disposal of produced water.

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION

Boston Scientific develops, manufactures and markets medical devices. The company's Medical Surgical segment consist of: Endoscopy, which develops and manufactures devices to diagnose and treat a range of gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions; and Urology and Pelvic Health, which develops and manufactures devices to treat various urological and pelvic conditions. The company's Rhythm and Neuro segment includes: Cardiac Rhythm Management, which develops and manufactures implantable devices to treat cardiac abnormalities; and Electrophysiology, which develops and manufactures medical technologies used in the diagnosis and treatment of rate and rhythm disorders of the heart.

Concho Resources Inc.

Concho Resources is an independent oil and natural gas company engaged in the acquisition, development, exploration and production of oil and natural gas properties. The company's operations are primarily focused in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

CONMED Corporation

CONMED is a medical technology company that provides surgical devices and equipment for minimally invasive procedures. The company's product lines consist of orthopedic surgery, which consists of sports medicine instrumentation and small bone, large bone and specialty powered surgical instruments, as well as imaging systems for use in minimally invasive surgery procedures and service fees related to the promotion and marketing of sports medicine allograft tissue; and general surgery, which consists of endo-mechanical instrumentation for minimally invasive laparoscopic and gastrointestinal procedures, cardiac monitoring products as well as electrosurgical generators and related instruments.

CONOCOPHILLIPS

ConocoPhillips is an exploration and production company engaged in exploring for, producing, transporting and marketing crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company's segments include: Alaska, which operates in Alaska; Lower 48, which operates in the United States and the Gulf of Mexico; Canada, which operates in Alberta and British Columbia; Europe and North Africa, which consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya; Asia Pacific and Middle East, which operates in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Qatar, and Timor-Leste; and Other International, which operates in Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

Continental Resources Inc.

Continental Resources is an independent crude oil and natural gas company engaged in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas mainly in the North, South and East regions of the U.S. The North region consists of properties north of Kansas and west of the Mississippi River and includes North Dakota Bakken, Montana Bakken, and the Red River units. The South region includes all properties south of Nebraska and west of the Mississippi River including various plays in the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province and Sooner Trend Anadarko Canadian Kingfisher areas of Oklahoma. The East region is comprised of undeveloped leasehold acreage east of the Mississippi River.

EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES CORP

Edwards Lifesciences is engaged in patient-focused medical for structural heart disease, as well as critical care and surgical monitoring. The company is a manufacturer of heart valve systems and repair products used to replace or repair a patient's diseased or defective heart valve. The company is also engaged in hemodynamic and noninvasive brain and tissue oxygenation monitoring systems used to measure a patient's cardiovascular function in the hospital setting. The company's products and technologies are categorized into four main areas: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, Transcatheter Mitral and Tricuspid Therapies, Surgical Structural Heart, and Critical Care.

EOG Resources Inc.

EOG Resources, together with its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, produces and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas primarily in main producing basins in the United States, The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, The People's Republic of China, Canada and, from time to time, select other international areas.

Hess Corporation

Hess is a global exploration and production company engaged in exploration, development, production, transportation, purchase and sale of crude oil, natural gas liquid (NGL), and natural gas with production operations located primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, Malaysia and Denmark. The company's Midstream operating segment provides fee-based services, including gathering, compressing and processing natural gas and fractionating NGL; gathering, terminaling, loading and transporting crude oil and NGL; storing and terminaling propane, and water handling services primarily in the Bakken shale play in the Williston Basin area of North Dakota.

Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation

Integra LifeSciences Holdings is a medical devices company engaged in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of surgical implants and medical instruments. The company manufactures and sells its products in the following two reportable business segments: Codman Specialty Surgical, which includes technologies in dural repair, ultrasonic tissue ablation, intracranial cranial pressure monitoring, hydrocephalus management, and cranial stabilization systems; and Orthopedics and Tissue Technologies, which focus on addressing soft tissue, nerve, and tendon repairs as well as reconstruction in the hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder, ankle and foot.

Intuitive Surgical Inc.

Intuitive Surgical develops, manufactures, and markets the da Vinci? Surgical System and the Ion? endoluminal system. The systems consist of a surgeon console or consoles, a patient-side cart, a vision system, and proprietary instruments and accessories. The company's technology is designed to provide surgeons with a range of motion analogous to the motions of a human wrist, while filtering out the tremors inherent in a surgeon's hands. The company's primary platform for robotic-assisted surgery is its family of da Vinci Surgical Systems. The da Vinci Surgical System allows surgeons to operate while seated at an ergonomic console viewing a three-dimensional image of the surgical field.

LeMaitre Vascular Inc.

LeMaitre Vascular is a provider of medical devices and human tissue cryopreservation services for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease. The company develops, manufactures, and markets vascular devices to address the needs of vascular surgeons. The company's portfolio of peripheral vascular devices consists of brand name products that are used in arteries and veins outside of the heart and includes the LeMaitre valvulotome, the XenoSure biologic patch, the Pruitt F3 carotid shunt, VascuTape radiopaque tape, and Syntel embolectomy catheters. The company's principal product offerings are sold throughout the world, primarily in the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific Rim.

LivaNova Plc

LivaNova is a medical device company focused on the development and delivery of therapeutic solutions. Co. has three product franchises: Neuromodulation, which engaged in the design, development and marketing of neuromodulation therapy for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy and treatment resistant depression; Cardiac Surgery, which engaged in the development, production and sale of cardiovascular surgery products; and Cardiac Rhythm Management, which engaged in the development, manufacturing and marketing of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of heart rhythm disorders and heart failure.

NEVRO CORP

Nevro is a medical device company that has developed and commercialized the Senza? spinal cord stimulation, a neuromodulation platform for the treatment of chronic pain. The Senza system is approved to create electrical impulses from two Hz to 10,000 Hz, including the company's proprietary HF10 therapy, which allows for pain relief without paresthesia. Senza is consisted of leads, a trial stimulator, an implantable pulse generator (IPG), surgical tools, a clinician laptop programmer, a patient remote control and a mobile charger. These components enable physicians to implant the leads and the IPG, and patients to operate the system.

Noble Energy Inc.

Noble Energy is an independent energy company, engaged in crude oil and natural gas exploration and production. The company's operating areas include: U.S. onshore, primarily the DJ Basin, Delaware Basin and Eagle Ford Shale; U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico; Eastern Mediterranean; and West Africa. The company's Midstream segment develops, owns, operates and acquires domestic midstream infrastructure assets, or invests in other midstream entities, with existing focus areas being the DJ and Delaware Basins. The company's activities include geophysical and geological evaluation; analysis of commercial, regulatory and political risks; and exploratory and development drilling leading to production, where appropriate.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation

Occidental Petroleum has three reporting segments: oil and gas, which explores for, develops and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas; chemical, which mainly manufactures and markets basic chemicals (chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates and calcium chloride) and vinyls (vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride and ethylene); and marketing and midstream, which purchases, markets, gathers, processes, transports and stores oil, condensate, NGL, natural gas, carbon dioxide and power.

Penumbra Inc.

Penumbra is a healthcare company. The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets medical devices. The company's Neuro products include Penumbra System brand of products that provides a form of mechanical thrombectomy used by specialist physicians to revascularize blood vessels that are blocked by clots in the intracranial vasculature. The company's Vascular products include the Ruby Coil System that consists of detachable coils and is used in clinical applications auch as active extravasations, or the escape of blood into surrounding tissue, selective embolization in patients with visceral aneurysms, embolization in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, and high flow arterial venous malformations.

Pioneer Natural Resources Company

Pioneer Natural Resources is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production. The company explores for, develops and produces oil, Natural Gas Liquids and gas within the United States, with operations in the Permian Basin in West Texas. The company's portfolio of resources are located in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp oil field.

STRYKER CORPORATION

Stryker is a medical technology company. The company provides products and services in orthopaedics, medical and surgical, and neurotechnology and spine. The company's Orthopaedics products consist of implants used in hip and knee joint replacements and trauma and extremities surgeries. The company's MedSurg products include surgical equipment and navigation systems, endoscopic and communications systems, patient handling, emergency medical equipment and intensive care disposable products, reprocessed and remanufactured medical devices and other medical device products used in a range of medical specialties. The company's Neurotechnology and Spine products include neurosurgical, neurovascular, and spinal implant devices.

Provider
Vermilion Research
Vermilion Research

Vermilion Research delivers timely, actionable, and unique research inputs to professional investors. Our research strategists highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various proprietary technical indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. We believe our research methodology, which is not limited by industry sector or market capitalization, enables us to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing all actively traded stocks into coherent sectors, then into logical industry groups. We then apply our proprietary relative strength tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sectors or groups, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. Vermilion offers U.S. and global equity market research products. Vermilion’s research team, which has received numerous awards and accolades, has a combined 70 year of experience in the analysis of investment securities.

Analysts
Dave Nicoski

Ross LaDuke

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