Cardinal is one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical and medical distribution companies. Its Pharmaceutical segment distributes a wide range of branded and generic drugs, specialty drugs, and over-the-counter products. The Medical segment distributes medical, surgical, and laboratory products to hospitals and other healthcare providers. The company has about 44,000 employees. The shares are a component of the S&P 500.

September 10 was very reminiscent of the mega-cap market from parts of 2023 and 2024, when just a handful of monster stocks dragged the major indices higher, while most other stocks waded in choppy water. While the biggest sector winner was Real Estate (XLRE), with a 1.8% gain, Information Technology (IT) was second, rising 1.5%, and Consumer Discretionary was third, adding 1.2%. Within IT, software rose 1.9% on the back of Oracle's 11% surge following better-than-expected quarterly results. Semiconductors also got a little mojo back, rising a bit more than 3% as Broadcom popped 5.3% and Advanced Micro added 3.4%. Autos led in discretionary as Tesla ripped 4.6% while the next 10 autos by market cap all fell. On the flipside, Financial gave up 1%, led by a 5.2% drubbing in the largest bank, JP Morgan. Energy was the weakest sector, as crude oil fell another 3.5% to $66.30/barrel and the lowest close for WTI since late 2021. Exxon led Energy to the downside, falling 3.6%. While the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, the Nasdaq rose 0.8%, Nasdaq 100 was up 0.9%, small- and mid-caps did little, and NYSE breadth was flat. Bonds continue to rally as the 10-year yield fell to 3.65%, the lowest level since June 2023; the five-year dropped to 3.43%, its lowest since May 2023; while the two-year is down to 3.59%, the lowest since March 2023. While it's happening slowly, the yield is normalizing - in other words, it is 'un-inverting' for the first time in over two years. The two-, five-, and 10-year yield charts all look like they are tracing out multi-year topping formations, but we don't want rates to fall too far.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

When management at a company raises guidance, it can be a catalyst for market-beating returns in the quarters ahead. The second-quarter earnings season is wrapping up, with blended earnings (actual results and the consensus for those still to report) showing a year-over-year gain of 12%, according to Refinitiv. That is considerably better than what was expected at the start of the earnings period. Leading the outperformance are strong gains in Financial, with earnings up 20%. On the flipside, Materials is performing the worst, down 6%. Our analysts are always on the lookout for companies that boost their outlooks during earnings season. Here is a partial list of BUY-rated companies in Argus' Fundamental Universe of Coverage at which management raised guidance or increased its outlook during the 2Q24 EPS reporting season. We like this theme, as it crosses numerous industries and generates a robust list of potential portfolio candidates.