Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Research from Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>We joined WTR’s Head of Business Development Tim Regan on this week’s Water Tower Hour Podcast to recap what happened in the chemicals and materials technology industries in 2023 and to provide an outlook for 2024.</li><li>Those interested can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.</li><li>WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing 2023 in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the Russell 2000, appreciating 15%.</li></ul>

We joined WTR’s Head of Business Development Tim Regan on this week’s Water Tower Hour Podcast to recap what happened in the chemicals and materials technology industries in 2023 and to provide an outlook for 2024.Those interested can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing 2023 in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the Russell 2000, appreciating 15%.

Water Tower Hour Recap -  2023 Review and 2024 Outlook

<ul><li>The WTR Sustainable Index was up by 1.0% W/W versus the S&amp;P 500 Index (up 1.4%), the Russell 2000 Index (down 0.8%), and the Nasdaq Index (up 1.3%).</li><li>Energy Technology (13.9% of the index) was up by 5.1%, while Industrial Climate and Ag Technology (54.5% of the index) was up 1.1%, ClimateTech Mining was down 5.4%, and Advanced Transportation Solutions was up 0.1%.</li><li>Top 10 Performers: EVTV, PLUG, JEV, NXT, VIEW, PGTK, LCID, NAAS, ANRG, ELBM</li></ul>

The WTR Sustainable Index was up by 1.0% W/W versus the S&amp;P 500 Index (up 1.4%), the Russell 2000 Index (down 0.8%), and the Nasdaq Index (up 1.3%).Energy Technology (13.9% of the index) was up by 5.1%, while Industrial Climate and Ag Technology (54.5% of the index) was up 1.1%, ClimateTech Mining was down 5.4%, and Advanced Transportation Solutions was up 0.1%.Top 10 Performers: EVTV, PLUG, JEV, NXT, VIEW, PGTK, LCID, NAAS, ANRG, ELBM

Weekly Sustainable Investing Surveyor - Week Ended February 2, 2024

Independent Research, US Dominant Players, Investment Talk

Investment Talk

Independent Research, US Dominant Players

Investment Talk is for readers who wish to learn about companies that are potentially outside of their own circle of research, as well as those who are longing to become part of a community of like-minded investors and learn more about investment research. I would describe myself as a long-term investor who typically takes a 3Y to 5Y outlook, before reassessing once that period matures. I follow the adage that one should research, reach a conclusion, and then verify and continue to hold so long as the thesis remains intact. My own investing style is one that seeks to find dominant players within their respective market who have shown signs of monopoly or oligopolistic behaviour, unlikely to be disrupted, in tandem with discovering market disruptors who have a high likelihood of disrupting their respective market. Equally (and weighted accordingly) I seek to discover more nuanced, misunderstood, situations with a shorter time frame.

<ul><li>As I <strong>reflected</strong> on my performance in 2023, I was reminded that benchmarking can be a brutal process.</li><li>But it keeps you humble. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&amp;P 500.</li><li>I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.</li></ul>

As I reflected on my performance in 2023, I was reminded that benchmarking can be a brutal process.But it keeps you humble. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&amp;P 500.I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.</li>
<li>Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.</li>
<li>1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).</li>
</ul>


More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.
Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.
1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).


Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist, Steno Research

Andreas Steno

Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist

Macro and Geopolitical Research House

Steno Research

Steno Research is a new macro and geopolitical research house. We are based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, but have an international team and a strong network of sources and partners around the world. The team is lead by Andreas Steno, previous global head of strategy at Nordea Bank, and Mikkel Rosenvold, former chief consultant in the Danish Ministry of Finance.

Macroeconomics

<ul><li>Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.</li><li>Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.</li><li>This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.</li></ul>

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

United States

The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities and serves as the foundation for a wide range of investment products. The index includes 500 leading companies and captures approximately 80% coverage of available market capitalization.

S&P 500 INDEX (SPX INDEX)

Water Tower Hour Recap - 2023 Review and 2024 Outlook

WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing 2023 in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the...

Water Tower Research

Weekly Sustainable Investing Surveyor - Week Ended February 2, 2024

The WTR Sustainable Index was up by 1.0% W/W versus the S&P 500 Index (up 1.4%), the Russell 2000 Index (down 0.8%), and the Nasdaq Index (up 1.3%).

Water Tower Research

Picking a Benchmark

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&P 500.I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.

Investment Talk

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar. 1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields $TNX failing at shorter-term resistances today; $DXY below...

Vermilion Research

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode,...

Steno Research