Small investors appear to like what they see and have demonstrated this by leaning heavily on call options versus put options. The five-day CBOE equity-only put/call (P/C) ratio fell to 0.51 at the end of September, the lowest reading since July 2023 when it fell to 0.48. That was just when the stock market was peaking and ended up falling until the end of October. Since the low on September 26, the five-day P/C has climbed back to 0.57, which is still a fairly low level. However, the 21-day equity-only P/C ratio is still falling, which is bullish for stocks. Why? Heavy call buying versus put buying places a bid under prices. These P/Cs are low and warning that investors are leaning very hard on the bullish side of the market, are not worried about the downside, and are doing some hedging. But generally there is a turn in this action toward more put buying before the market falls back. So if the 21-day turns higher, that would be the signal that stocks might well experience some pain. We are watching this combination of P/C ratios very closely. While we think the bull market has room to run, the headlines stink and October can be a volatile month, especially during the election cycle. The market has survived wars, shipping issues, elections, and just about everything else over the decades -- and prices still trend higher over the long term. Near term, we think it's a good idea to consider some hedging just in case things turn ugly. We will act when the data and price action tell us to act. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

In this edition, antitrust issues curbing Big Tech M&A; a look at semiconductor industry; Hanesbrands' transformation has been overlooked; and EasyJet, Humana, and Repligen.

Tesla is a vertically integrated battery electric vehicle automaker and developer of autonomous driving software. The company has multiple vehicles in its fleet, which include luxury and midsize sedans, crossover SUVs, a light truck, and a semi-truck. Tesla also plans to begin selling more affordable vehicles, and a sports car. Global deliveries in 2023 were a little over 1.8 million vehicles. The company also sells batteries for stationary storage for residential and commercial properties including utilities and solar panels and solar roofs for energy generation. Tesla also owns a fast-charging network.

Nvidia is a leading developer of graphics processing units. Traditionally, GPUs were used to enhance the experience on computing platforms, most notably in gaming applications on PCs. GPU use cases have since emerged as important semiconductors used in artificial intelligence. Nvidia not only offers AI GPUs, but also a software platform, Cuda, used for AI model development and training. Nvidia is also expanding its data center networking solutions, helping to tie GPUs together to handle complex workloads.