Corteva Inc., the former agricultural business of DowDuPont, has two business segments: Seeds and Crop Protection. The Seeds segment provides advanced germplasm and seeds that help farmers optimize yields. The Crop Protection segment develops and markets herbicides.

On Monday, August 5, the S&P 500 (SPX) fell right to its lower channel off the lows in October 2022 and March 2023. Yes, that is the trendline we didn't trust because it was busted twice in October 2023. We also got close (at 5,119) to a 78.6% retracement of the rally from April until July (at 5,107). The SPX cycled into oversold territory at 30 on the 14-day relative strength index (RSI), but could become more oversold. The rising 200-day is at 5,012, while the April low is at 4,967. One of our favorite charts is the weekly SPX with the 200-week average and the weekly Bollinger Bands. While we still have some distance, the slightly rising lower band is down near 5,000 as of this writing. A touch/undercut and then a recapture of the lower band generally has indicated an excellent time to buy the index/market. A good confirmation would be a move back over the middle band. But note the failures in 2022's bear market: two times the SPX failed at/near the middle band, while a third move surpassed the middle band but ended up failing The VIX exploded to 66% at the open on August 5, its highest level since the pandemic. The three-day rate-of-change (ROC) was 136%, the highest since early 2018. Since 1990, this is the third-highest three-day ROC. We had a three-day decline of 9% in 2018 and a two-day decline of 6% in 2015. The VIX moves sharply when stocks move lower quickly lower. The three-day SPX decline was 7.3% at the lows on August 5 and ended the day at 6.1%. Both the drops in 2018 and 2015 were followed by a quick rally and then a retest of the lows or a double bottom. Both double bottoms were followed by major rallies that failed.

Corteva is an agricultural inputs pure play that was formed in 2019 when it was spun off from DowDuPont. The company is a leader in the development of new seed and crop protection products. Seeds generate the majority of profits with the remainder coming from crop protection products. Corteva operates globally, but around half of revenue comes from North America.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Mid Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. The market capitalization range for U.S. mid-caps typically falls between $1 billion and $8 billion and represents 20% of the total capitalization of the U.S. equity market.