Report
Dave Nicoski ...
  • Ross LaDuke
EUR 46.63 For Business Accounts Only

Vermilion Compass: Weekly Equity Strategy

Status Quo: Bullish Outlook Intact

Our outlook remains status quo: we are bullish and we believe the path of least resistance remains higher. With a lack of breakdowns across Sectors and major indexes, small- and mid-caps outperforming, and new price highs in the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Technology, and Discretionary, it is hard to be anything but bullish.

· Sector Relative Strength Rankings & Weighting Recommendations. A portion of our bullish outlook has been supported by the fact that RS for defensive Sectors is making lower highs ever since the S&P 500 bottomed in March. This continues to be the case for Consumer Staples (XLP), Utilities (XLU), and Real Estate (XLRE) -- remain underweight... see pages 2-3.

· Small- & Mid-Caps Outperforming; Retail Breaking Out. Price trends remain attractive and RS uptrends remain intact for both small-caps (Russell 2000) and mid-caps (S&P 400). This is consistent with historical bull markets and is a bullish sign as long as it continues. Additionally, equal-weighted retail (XRT) is breaking above key resistance and RS remains in an uptrend. Two actionable ideas include Floor & Decor (FND) and SiteOne Landscape Supply (SITE)... see charts below and page 4.

· Breadth Largely Constructive. Advance/decline (A/D) lines on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 remain constructive and are within striking distance of new highs. However, the A/D line for the Russell 3000 - which includes small-caps - is showing a negative divergence. The longer this negative divergence continues, the more likely that there will be a meaningful pullback. Of course, the more desirable (and more likely) alternative would be for the A/D line to hit new highs as breadth improves... see page 5.

· Treasury Yields, Copper vs. Gold. While a bottom near current levels would make sense, the path of least resistance remains lower for Treasury yields and the copper/gold ratio. Still, as long as this does not upset the equity market our bullish outlook for stocks remains appropriate... see page 6.
Underlyings
Advanced Energy Industries Inc.

Advanced Energy Industries designs, manufactures, sells and supports power conversion products that convert power into various usable forms. The company's products enable manufacturing processes that use thin film technology for products such as semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, thin film renewables, architectural glass, optical coating and consumer products decorative and functional coating. The company also supplies thermal instrumentation products for temperature measurement and control for multiple industrial markets. The company's network of global service support centers provides repair services, conversions, improvements, and refurbishments and used equipment to companies using its products.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices is a semiconductor company. The company primarily provides x86 microprocessors, as standalone devices or as incorporated into an accelerated processing unit, chipsets, graphics processing units (GPUs), data center and personnel GPUs, and development services; server and embedded processors, semi-custom System-on-Chip products, development services and technology for game consoles. The company also licenses portions of its intellectual property portfolio. The company's segments are: Computing and Graphics, which consists of desktop, notebooks, commercial, and chipsets products; and Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom, which includes server processors, and embedded P\processors products.

Akamai Technologies Inc.

Akamai Technologies provides solutions for securing, delivering and optimizing content and business applications over the Internet. The company provides online solutions for the security, delivery and acceleration of websites and applications. The company's solutions include: cloud security solutions; enterprise security solutions; web and mobile performance solutions; media delivery solutions; carrier solutions; and services and support solutions, which provides an array of service and support offerings that are designed to assist its customers with integrating, configuring, optimizing and managing its main offerings.

Amkor Technology Inc.

Amkor Technology is a provider of outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services, which include semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test and drop shipment services. The company's Advanced Products include flip chip chip scale packages, wafer-level packages and flip chip ball grid array packages, while its Mainstream Products include leadframe packages, substrate-based wirebond packages and micro-electro-mechanical systems packages. The company provides its services to integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies and contract foundries.

Applied Materials Inc.

Applied Materials provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. The company's segments are: Semiconductor Systems, which develops, manufactures and sells a range of manufacturing equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips; Applied Global Services, which provides integrated solutions to support equipment and fab performance and productivity; and Display and Adjacent Markets, which is comprised of products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices.

ASML Holding N.V.

Axcelis Technologies Inc.

Axcelis Technologies designs, manufactures and services ion implantation and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The company also provides aftermarket lifecycle products and services, including used tools, spare parts, equipment upgrades, maintenance services and customer training. The company provides high energy, high current and medium current implanters for all application requirements. The company's Purion systems are all based on a common platform which enables a combination of implant purity, precision and productivity by combining a single wafer end station, with a spot beam architecture. The company's other products include curing systems, and thermal processing systems.

Daqo New Energy Corp Sponsored ADR

Entegris Inc.

Entegris is a developer, manufacturer and supplier of microcontamination control products, chemicals and materials handling solutions for manufacturing processes in the semiconductor and other industries. The company has three segments: Specialty Chemicals and Engineered Materials, which provides process chemistries, gases, and materials; Microcontamination Control, which provides solutions to filter and purify liquid chemistries and gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes and other industries; and Advanced Materials Handling segment, which develops solutions to monitor, protect, transport, and deliver liquid chemistries, wafers and substrates.

Floor & Decor Holdings Inc. Class A

Floor & Decor Holdings is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a specialty retailer of hard surface flooring and related accessories. The company's customers include installers and commercial businesses, Do It Yourself customers and customers who buy the products for installation. The company's primary product categories include Tile, Wood, Laminate/Luxury Vinyl Plank, Natural Stone, Decorative Accessories, and Installation Materials and Tools. In addition to its stores, the company's website FloorandDecor.com showcases its products, provides informational training and design ideas and has its products available for sale, which a customer can pick up in store or have delivered.

Ichor Holdings Ltd.

KLA Corporation

KLA is a supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries. The company provides process control and process-enabling solutions for manufacturing and testing wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, light emitting diodes, power devices, compound semiconductor devices, microelectromechanical systems, data storage, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and flat and flexible panel displays, as well as general materials research. The company has four reportable segments which include Semiconductor Process Control; Specialty Semiconductor Process; PCB, Display and Component Inspection; and Other.

Lam Research Corporation

Lam Research is a supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. The company designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company's customer base includes semiconductor memory, foundry, and integrated device manufacturers that make products such as non-volatile memory, dynamic random-access memory, and logic devices. The company's services include customer service, spares, improvement, and refurbishment of its deposition, etch, and clean products. The company sells its products and services to companies in the United States, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

Marvell Technology Group is a semiconductor provider of application-specific products. The company is focused on the development of System-on-a-Chip devices, utilizing its technology portfolio of intellectual property in the areas of analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing, and embedded and standalone integrated circuits. The company develops integrated hardware platforms along with software that incorporates digital computing technologies. In storage, the company is engaged in fibre channel products and data storage controller solutions spanning cloud, enterprise, edge and personal computing markets. The company's networking products include ethernet solutions, embedded processors and WiFi connectivity solutions.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc.

Maxim Integrated Products designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of linear and mixed-signal integrated circuits, referred to as analog circuits. The company's linear and mixed signal products serve the Automotive, Communications and Data Center, Computing, Consumer, and Industrial end-markets. The company primarily utilizes third party foundries as well as its own wafer fabrication facilities for the production of its wafers. The company markets its products worldwide through a direct-sales and applications organization and through its own and other unaffiliated distribution channels.

MKS Instruments Inc.

MKS Instruments is a provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions. The company has two segments: Vacuum & Analysis, which provides instruments, components, subsystems and software which are derived from its knowledge in pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, residual gas analysis, leak detection, control and information technology, ozone generation and delivery, radio frequency and data communication power, reactive gas generation and vacuum technology; and Light & Motion, which provides instruments, components and subsystems which are derived from its knowledge in lasers, photonics and optics.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc.

Monolithic Power Systems is a fabless semiconductor company. The company designs, develops and markets power solutions for systems found in consumer, computing and storage, automotive, industrial, communications and consumer applications. The company's primary product families include the following: Direct Current (DC) to DC products, which are used to convert and control voltages within a range of electronic systems such as portable electronic devices, wireless Local Area Network access points, computers, and monitors, automobiles and medical equipment; and Lighting Control Products, which include lighting control integrated circuits that are used in backlighting and general illumination products.

Onto Innovation, Inc.

PDF Solutions Inc.

PDF Solutions provides products and services designed to help data scientists across the semiconductor ecosystem to improve the yield, quality, and profitability of their products. The company's products and services include: Exensio Software Products, which is designed to enable customers to perform root cause diagnosis of yield, performance, and quality issues; Design-for-Inspection System, which is designed to enable its customers to achieve non-contact, inline electrical characterization and process control; Characterization Vehicle System, which is designed to improve yield learning; and software as a service, which provides services to make its Exensio software available via the Internet.

Qorvo Inc.

Qorvo is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company designs, develops, manufactures and markets its products to U.S. and international original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers in two operating segments: Mobile Products, which is a supplier of cellular radio frequency (RF) and Wi-Fi solutions for mobile devices, including smartphones, wearables, laptops, tablets and cellular-based applications for the Internet of Things (IoT); and Infrastructure and Defense Products, which is a supplier of RF and system-on-a-chip solutions for cellular base stations and other wireless communications infrastructure, defense, smart home, automotive and other IoT applications.

SiteOne Landscape Supply Inc.

SiteOne Landscape Supply is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a national wholesale distributor of landscape supplies in the U.S. and Canada. The company's customers are primarily residential and commercial landscape personnel who focuses on the design, installation and maintenance of lawns, gardens, golf courses and other outdoor spaces. Through its North American network, the company provides irrigation supplies, fertilizer and control products, landscape accessories, nursery goods, hardscapes, outdoor lighting and ice melt products. The company also provides consultative services, as well as a series of technical and business management seminars that it calls SiteOne University.

Skyworks Solutions Inc.

Skyworks Solutions is a provider of analog semiconductors that connect people, places, and things, spanning a number of applications within the aerospace, automotive, broadband, cellular infrastructure, connected home, industrial, medical, military, smartphone, tablet and wearable markets. The company's product portfolio consists of various solutions, including: amplifiers, antenna tuners, attenuators, circulators/isolators, wireless analog system on chip, direct current (DC)/DC converters, demodulators, detectors, diodes, directional couplers, diversity receive modules, filters, front-end modules, hybrid, light emitting diode drivers, low noise amplifiers, mixers, and modulators.

Stabilus SA

Stabilus SA, formerly Servus HoldCo SARL is a Luxembourg-based company. The Company is the automotive and industrial supplier. It develops and produces electromechanical drives, gas springs and dampers. Its products in the automotive segment are used in a broad range of applications such as tailgates, hoods, doors and convertible tops. In addition, Stabilus SA supplies industrial customers, for example in medical and rehab technology (operating tables, hospital beds, wheelchairs), transportation and traffic (flaps and lids for luggage, loading and maintenance), furniture (cabinet lids, beds, tables) and house and building technology (skylights, smoke exhaust vents, awnings).

Teradyne Inc.

Teradyne is a global supplier of automation equipment for test and industrial applications. The company designs, develops, manufactures and sells automatic test systems used to test semiconductors, wireless products, data storage and electronics systems in the consumer electronics, wireless, automotive, industrial, computing, communications, and aerospace and defense industries. The company's automatic test equipment and industrial automation products and services include: semiconductor test systems; defense/aerospace test instrumentation and systems, storage test systems, and circuit-board test and inspection systems; industrial automation products; and wireless test systems.

Ultra Clean Holdings Inc.

Ultra Clean Holdings is engaged in designing, engineering, and manufacturing of production tools, modules and subsystems for the semiconductor capital equipment industry and industry segments with similar requirements including display, consumer and medical. The company designs, develops, prototypes, manufactures and tests subsystems, and cleans and analyzes tool parts, primarily for the semiconductor market. The company's products include precision robotic solutions, gas delivery systems, a variety of industrial and automation production equipment products; and subsystems that includes wafer cleaning modules, chemical delivery modules, top-plate assemblies, frame assemblies, and process modules.

United Microelectronics Corp (ADR)

Xilinx Inc.

Xilinx designs and develops programmable devices and associated technologies, including: integrated circuits (ICs) in the form of programmable logic devices (PLDs), including programmable System on Chips and three-dimensional ICs; Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform, a multi-core heterogeneous compute platform; software design tools to program the PLDs; software development environments and embedded platforms; targeted reference designs; printed circuit boards; and intellectual property (IP), which consists of the company and third-party verification and IP cores. In addition to its programmable platforms, the company provides design services, customer training, field engineering and technical support.

Xperi Holding Corporation

Xperi, through its operating subsidiaries, creates, develops and licenses audio, imaging, semiconductor packaging and interconnect technologies. The company's segments are: Product Licensing, which is comprised of its audio and imaging businesses that the company licenses through the brands DTS, HD Radio and FotoNation, whereby these licenses include the delivery of software and/or hardware-based solutions to its customers or to their suppliers; and Semiconductor and IP Licensing, which includes the company's subsidiaries, Tessera, Inc. and Tessera Advanced Technologies, Inc. and Invensas Corporation that license semiconductor packaging and interconnect technologies and associated intellectual property.

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

Other Reports on these Companies
Other Reports from Vermilion Research

ResearchPool Subscriptions

Get the most out of your insights

Get in touch