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.

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.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership. Form 13Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters and have come in for 2Q24. We review 13Fs of major institutional investors, including activists, to see what they are buying and to look for trends. Activist investing is now less about generating a short-term return and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnership. The stock-market volatility during 2Q gave those institutional investors a chance to buy a dip. Taking a look at the 13Fs from well-known institutional portfolios, we see that the big guns were busy, either adding new holdings or increasing existing holdings. Buying was across a variety of sectors. Based on Vickers data, the following are select purchases made in 2Q by some high-profile money managers. We also list one significant sale (of Apple by Berkshire) and also note if the holding is now 4% or more of the total portfolio.

Stocks climbed again last week -- and if it weren't for Thursday's wipeout, we would have had a really good week. You gotta' love those one-day wonders. The S&P 500 (SPX) is within 33 points of its all-time closing high (ATH) from July 16, the S&P 100 (OEX) is 44 points below its July 10 ATH, the S&P MidCap 400 (MDY) is only three points under its July 16 high, and the NYSE cruised to a new high last week. The Nasdaq and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) are still 4%-5% below their July 10 highs. Friday saw nice gains in the indices (from 1.2% to 3.2%), with the largest gains coming from the Russell 2000 and the S&P Small Cap 600. The S&P MidCap 400 was next, gaining 2.2%. With all that strength underneath the mega-cap indices, market breadth was very good. NYSE advances/declines came in at a robust +2,187, the best day since December 2023. NYSE advances/total issues was 87% and the NYSE advancing volume/total volume was very strong at 91%, with both measures also the strongest since last December. This is the week AI fans have been waiting for, with Nvidia reporting after the close on Wednesday. The stock has surged since falling below $91 on August 5 and is not far from its ATH of $135.58 on June 18. NVDA looks like it is tracing out a "V" bottom -- and a break over $136 would complete the pattern and open the door for a possible measured move to $165-$180 based on the size of the current base. NVDA makes up 8% of the QQQ and 6.5% of the SPX, while Information Technology weightings in the QQQ are over 50% and are 31% in the SPX. We don't think we need to say any more about how critical this earnings report will be for investors. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)