Dow Theory Says The Bull Market Is Intact

At Porter & Co. we are determined to be your best source of investing, economic, and financial insight, and your first choice for information about what to do with your money… in the entire world, bar none.

This is Porter & Co.’s Sunday Investment Chronicles. Every week, the Porter & Co. research team pores over thousands (and thousands) of articles, reports, social media posts, analyses, regulatory filings, and anything else we can get our hands (and eyes) on to understand what’s happening in the world of investing and finance – and to uncover the most original, compelling, and double-head-fake ideas…

… and we curate the best of those here. We do it all the old-fashioned way: Hours of reading and brainpower (no AI curation here). We read everything – for you.

In Case You Missed It… What We Published Last Week

In Monday’s Daily Journal, we kicked off the year riding the momentum of gold’s remarkable 70% rise in 2025. And we are not alone: instead of buying into government bonds as a safe-haven asset, global investors are piling into gold, which broke out to record highs above $2,100 per ounce in March 2024, and has since rallied more than 2x to $4,500 per ounce. Gold is the new global safe-haven asset, as investors flee into it and away from the promissory notes of overly indebted governments around the world.

That’s why Porter has been big-time bullish on gold for a little more than a year. In fact, now is the third time over the last 30 years that Porter has followed what he calls “the go all-in” message on gold.

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On Wednesday, Distressed Investing lead analyst Marty Fridson took over the Journal to talk about the great value investors can discover in spin-offs.

He shared the insight that spin-offs don’t just perform – they outperform. He highlighted a Purdue University study spanning 1965-2000 found that spin-offs deliver 10% annualized excess return. He also added that the Bloomberg U.S. Spin-Off Index (BNSPIN) was up 23% in 2025, outperforming the S&P 500’s 17% gain, with 22 major spin-offs exceeding $1 billion in market value.

In short, Marty concluded…

You often have the wind at your back when you invest in a spin-off. The discarded company’s value may rise substantially if management does little more than undo the damage inflicted when it was acquired for reasons that weren’t based on sound principles.

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There were three recommendations for Partner Pass members this week.

Erez Kalir “doubled down” on two of his favorite holdings in Tech Frontiers… He explained in Thursday’s report that the market has provided a compelling opportunity to re-invest in both companies at prices that Erez had not expected to see again. The risk/reward they offer, he says, is more favorably asymmetric than ever – featuring stronger science, better competitive positioning, and greater strategic optionality for both companies.

And Marty Fridson released another combo buy in Distressed Investing, as he has done so successfully in the past. On Thursday, he recommended both the preferred shares and common shares of one of the leading and fastest-growing payment-processing companies. Because of a few recent hiccups, shares have fallen while performance has remained strong… providing an attractive setup to buy, hold, and profit… Plus, on Friday he recommended investors sell-off one of his other Distressed Investing combo buys – for a 48% gain.

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The Complete Investor team kicked off the year highlighting what might be the major theme for Porter & Co. throughout 2026: the powerful convergence of AI and energy. In a comprehensive look at the energy landscape and how it blends in with growing demand for power from AI firms, we also gave an overview of the six holdings in the Complete Investor Energy & Commodities section of the portfolio. Read it here.

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And after delivering a blockbuster report on Thursday, Tech Frontiers editor Erez Kalir ended the week with a Daily Journal essay that explored valuations among leading AI companies and concluded, “Yes, there is a bubble.” But rather than overreact, he writes, there are level-headed ways to invest and still prosper. He wrote…

In every great technological cycle – from railroads to radio, from mainframes to microchips – the enduring fortunes were made not by those who recognized the breakthrough, but by those who had the patience to own it at the right price. Valuation discipline is what separates an investor from a speculator. Amid the euphoria of the AI boom, it’s also what will separate those who keep their gains from those who merely rent them.

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And yesterday’s Daily Journal Saturday Stock Screen featured Porter’s 3X Screen, capturing a de-facto monopoly company embedded at the center of a mission-critical workflow. For much of the global creative economy, this software platform is the lifeblood of design. The analysis is available to all subscribers, and the full company report can be seen by Partner Pass members. Read it here.

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The Best Things We Read Last Week

Out of the hundreds of sources of investment, finance, and economics news and insight we regularly review – our Bloomberg terminal, hedge-fund letters, annual reports, the financial news media, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings, investment newsletters, newspapers, X (Twitter) threads, conferences, podcasts, and more – here’s what we’ve read that we think you might find interesting.