Report
Dave Nicoski ...
  • Ross LaDuke

Vital Signs: Actionable charts

Key Points:

• Energy continues to dominate as one of the most attractive Sectors and thus we are upgrading the Sector to an Overweight. The decisive break above the $78 level on the XLE was the catalyst.

• Many retailers continue to indicate that we are not heading into an economic recession as they continue to demonstrate leadership characteristics as many are breaking to new price and RS highs.

• Biotechnology continues to be mixed, but many positive developments are occurring as a number are inflecting positively.
Underlyings
American Eagle Outfitters Inc.

American Eagle Outfitters is a multi-brand retailer. The company operates retail stores and online at www.ae.com and www.aerie.com. The company provides a range of apparel and accessories for men and women under the American Eagle Outfitters brand, and intimates, apparel and personal care products for women under the Aerie brand. The company operates stores in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, and China. The company also has license agreements with third-parties to operate American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores throughout Asia, Europe, India, Latin America and the Middle East. The company also operates two other brands, Tailgate, a vintage, sports-inspired apparel brand, and Todd Snyder New York, a menswear brand.

ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc.

ANI Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing branded and generic prescription pharmaceuticals. The company's products include, among others: Arimidex, which is used for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer; Erythromycin Ethylsuccinate, which is used to treat infections caused by susceptible strains of designated organisms for selected diseases; Diphenoxylate Hydrochloride and Atropine Sulfate, which is used as an adjunctive therapy in the management of diarrhea; and Etodolac, which is used to treat mild to moderate pain caused by osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Bristow Group Inc.

Bristow Group is an industrial aviation services provider. The company has transportation operations in the North Sea, Nigeria and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the other major offshore energy producing regions of the world. The company provides private sector search and rescue (SAR) services in Australia, Canada, Norway, Russia, Trinidad and the U.S. The company provides public sector SAR services in the U.K. on behalf of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency. The company also provides regional fixed wing scheduled and charter services in the U.K., Nigeria and Australia through its consolidated affiliates, Eastern Airways International Limited and Capiteq Limited, operating under the name of Airnorth, respectively.

Brookline Bancorp Inc.

Brookline Bancorp is a multi-bank holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in providing a range of commercial, business and retail banking services, including cash management products, on-line banking services, consumer and residential loans and investment services. The company's activities include acceptance of commercial, municipal and retail deposits, origination of mortgage loans on commercial and residential real estate located principally in New England states, origination of commercial loans and leases to small and mid-sized businesses, investment in debt and equity securities, and the provision of cash management and investment advisory services.

CIRCOR International Inc.

CIRCOR International designs, manufactures and markets technology products and sub-systems for markets including industrial, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, and commercial marine. The company has the following reportable business segments: Energy, which provides integrated flow control solutions, valves and services for the oil & gas and process Instrumentation markets; Aerospace & Defense, which provides valves, pumps, actuation, motors, switches, and high pressure pneumatic systems; and Indusrial, which positive displacement pumps, specialty centrifugal pumps, automatic recirculating valves, control valves, and harsh environment flow control products for steam and cryogenic applications.

Core Laboratories NV

Core Laboratories is a holding company. Co. is a provider of reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services to the oil and gas industry. Co. has three segments: reservoir description, which encompasses the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock, fluid and gas samples; production enhancement, which includes products and services relating to reservoir well completions, perforations, stimulations and production; and reservoir management, which combines and integrates information from reservoir description and production enhancement services to increase production and improve recovery of oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.

El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc

El Pollo Loco Holdings is a holding company. Through its subsidiary, El Pollo Loco, Inc., the company develops, franchises, licenses and operates quick-service restaurants under the name El Pollo Loco ?. The restaurants, which are located principally in California but also in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Louisiana, engaged in flame-grilled chicken in a variety of contemporary Mexican-influenced entrees, including chicken burritos, chicken quesadillas, chicken tortilla soup, variations on its Pollo Bowl? and Pollo Salads. The company serves individual and family-sized chicken meals, a variety of Mexican-inspired entrees, and sides, and, on a limited-time basis, additional proteins like shrimp.

Electronics For Imaging Inc.

Electronics for Imaging is engaged in digital printing, focusing on the printing, packaging, ceramic tile decoration and textile industries. The company's product portfolio includes industrial super-wide and wide format digital inkjet products including VUTEk display graphics super-wide and wide format, Nozomi corrugated packaging, Reggiani textile, Cretaprint ceramic tile decoration and building material industrial digital inkjet printers and ink; print production workflow, web-to-print, cross-media marketing, Optitex textile two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer aided fashion design applications, business process automation software and Fiery digital front ends.

EnerSys

EnerSys is a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of industrial batteries. The company also manufactures, markets and distributes products such as battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor cabinet enclosures. The company's product lines are: reserve power products, which are used for backup power for the continuous operation of critical applications in telecommunications systems, uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, and other specialty power applications; and motive power products, which are used to provide power for electric industrial forklifts used in manufacturing, warehousing and other material handling applications.

Federal Signal Corporation

Federal Signal designs, manufactures and supplies products and solutions for municipal, governmental, industrial and commercial customers. Products manufactured and supplied, and services rendered, by the company are divided into two segments: Environmental Solutions Group, which manufactures and supplies a range of street sweeper vehicles, sewer cleaner and vacuum loader trucks, hydro-excavation trucks, waterblasting equipment, dump truck bodies and trailers; and Safety and Security Systems Group, which manufactures and supplies systems and products that law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency medical services, campuses, military facilities and industrial sites use to protect people and property.

Green Plains Inc.

Green Plains is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is an ethanol producer. The company has four operating segments: ethanol production, which includes the production of ethanol, distillers grains and corn oil; agribusiness and energy services, which includes grain handling and storage, commodity marketing and merchant trading for company-produced and third-party ethanol, distillers grains, corn oil, natural gas and other commodities; food and ingredients, which includes cattle feeding and food-grade corn oil operations; and partnership, which includes fuel storage and transportation services.

Macy's Inc

Macy's is an omnichannel retail organization operating stores, websites and mobile applications under three brands (Macy's, Bloomingdale's and bluemercury) that sell merchandise, including apparel and accessories (men's, women's and children's), cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The company's wholly-owned bank subsidiary, FDS Bank, provides certain collections, customer service and credit marketing services in respect of all credit card accounts that are owned either by Department Stores National Bank, a subsidiary of Citibank, N.A., or FDS Bank and that constitute a part of the credit programs of the company's retail operations.

Monarch Casino & Resort Inc.

Monarch Casino & Resort, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Golden Road Motor Inn, Inc., owns and operates the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, a hotel/casino facility in Reno, NV (the Atlantis). The company's wholly owned subsidiaries, High Desert Sunshine, Inc., Golden East, Inc. and Golden North, Inc., each owns separate parcels of land located proximate to the Atlantis. The Atlantis includes casino space, guest rooms and suites, food outlets, espresso and pastry bars, a health spa and salon with an enclosed pool, retail outlets providing clothing and gift shop merchandise, a family entertainment center, and banquet, convention and meeting room space.

Nabors Industries Ltd.

Nabors Industries, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates land-based drilling rig fleet and is a provider of offshore platform drilling rigs in the U.S. and several international markets. The company also provides directional drilling services, tubular services, performance tools, and technologies for its own rig fleet and those of third parties. The company's business is comprised of its land-based and offshore drilling rig operations and other rig related services and technologies, consisting of equipment manufacturing, rig instrumentation and optimization software. The company has five reportable segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions and Rig Technologies.

Noble Corporation plc

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.

Oil States International Inc.

Oil States International, through its subsidiaries, is an oilfield products and services company serving the drilling, completion, subsea, production and infrastructure sectors of the oil and gas industry. The company is also a provider of completion services to the industry. The company operates through three segments: well site services, whose operations primarily include completion-focused equipment and services as well as land drilling services; downhole technologies, which provides oil and gas perforation systems and downhole tools; and offshore/manufactured products, which designs, manufactures and markets capital equipment utilized on floating production systems, among others.

PDC Energy Inc.

PDC Energy is an independent exploration and production company that acquires, explores and develops properties for the production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids with operations in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Delaware Basin in Texas. The company's operations in the Wattenberg Field are focused in the horizontal Niobrara and Codell plays and its Delaware Basin operations are primarily focused in the Wolfcamp zones. The company is engaged in two operating segments: its oil and gas exploration and production segment and its gas marketing segment.

Penn National Gaming Inc.

Penn National Gaming is an owner and manager of gaming and racing facilities and video gaming terminal operations with a focus on slot machine entertainment. In addition, the company operates an interactive gaming division through its subsidiary, Penn Interactive Ventures, LLC. The company's segment's properties include Ameristar East Chicago, Hollywood Casino Bangor, 1st Jackpot Casino, Ameristar Vicksburg, Boomtown Biloxi, Boomtown Bossier City, Ameristar Black Hawk, Cactus Petes and Horseshu, Ameristar Council Bluffs, Argosy Casino Alton, Argosy Casino Riverside, Freehold Raceway, Retama Park Racetrack, Sam Houston Race Park and Valley Race Park, and Sanford-Orlando Kennel Club, among others.

Pioneer Energy Services Corp.

Pioneer Energy Services provides land-based drilling services and production services. The company's business is comprised of two business lines: Drilling Services, which provides contract land drilling services through three domestic divisions which are located in the Marcellus/Utica, Permian Basin and Eagle Ford, and Bakken regions, and internationally in Colombia; and Production Services, which provides a range of well, wireline and coiled tubing services to a group of exploration and production companies, with its operations concentrated in the main domestic onshore oil and gas producing regions in the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain states.

Raven Industries Inc.

Raven Industries is a technology company providing a range of products to customers within the industrial, agricultural, geomembrane, construction, commercial lighter-than-air and aerospace/defense markets. The company has three reportable segments: Applied Technology Division, which includes application controls, GPS-guidance steering systems, field computers, automatic boom controls, information management tools, and injection systems; Engineered Films Division, which produces plastic films and sheeting for geomembrane, agricultural, construction, and industrial applications; Aerostar Division, which provides products that include high-altitude stratospheric balloons and radar systems.

Select Sector SPDR-Energy

SM Energy Company

SM Energy is an independent energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the state of Texas. The company's operations are concentrated in the Midland Basin and South Texas.

Sonic Automotive Inc. Class A

Sonic Automotive is an automotive retailer in the United States. The company has two reportable segments: the Franchised Dealerships Segment and the EchoPark Segment. The Franchised Dealerships segment is comprised of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles and buy and sell used vehicles, sell replacement parts, perform vehicle maintenance, warranty and repair services, and arrange finance and insurance products. The EchoPark segment is comprised of pre-owned vehicle retail locations that provide customers an opportunity to search the company's nationwide inventory, purchase a pre-owned vehicle, select finance and insurance products and sell their vehicle to the company

Superior Energy Services Inc.

Superior Energy Services provide services and products to the energy industry. The company serves national and independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies around the world. The company reports its operating results in four business segments: Drilling Products and Services, which include downhole drilling tools and surface rentals; Onshore Completion and Workover Services, which include pressure pumping, fluid management and workover services; Production Services, which include intervention services used to maintain and extend oil and gas production; and Technical Solutions, which include include completion tools and services, well control services and subsea well intervention.

Superior Industries International Inc.

Superior Industries International is engaged in the design and manufacture of aluminum wheels for sale to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in North America and Europe and aftermarket distributors in Europe. The company's OEM aluminum wheels are primarily sold for factory installation on vehicle models manufactured by BMW (including Mini), Daimler AG Company (Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Smart), FCA, Ford, GM, Honda, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mazda, Nissan, PSA, Renault, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, VW Group (Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Porsche, Bentley) and Volvo. The company also sells aluminum wheels to the European aftermarket under the brands ATS, RIAL, ALUTEC and ANZIO.

TimkenSteel Corp

TimkenSteel manufactures alloy steel, carbon and micro-alloy steel. The company's portfolio includes special bar quality (SBQ) bars, seamless mechanical tubing, solutions such as precision steel components, and billets. In addition, the company supplies machining and thermal treatment services, and the company manages raw material recycling programs. The company's products and services are used in the following market sectors: oil and gas; oil country tubular goods; automotive; industrial equipment; mining; construction; rail; aerospace and defense; heavy truck; agriculture; and power generation. The company's products include: SBQ Steel Bar, Seamless Mechanical Steel Tubes, and Billets; and Precision Products and Services.

Tredegar Corp.

Tredegar is engaged in the manufacture of polyethylene (PE) plastic films, polyester (PET) films and aluminum extrusions. The company's business segments are: PE Films, which manufactures plastic films, elastics and laminate materials; Flexible Packaging Films, which produces PET-based films for use in packaging applications that have properties, such as heat resistance, strength, barrier protection and the ability to accept print graphics; and Aluminum Extrusions, which produces soft-alloy and medium-strength aluminum extrusions primarily for building and construction, automotive, consumer durables, machinery and equipment, electrical and distribution markets.

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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