Summary
Earnings season is here and insiders have moved to the sidelines with a neutral stance. One could assume that they generally are okay with the state of their companies and the overall economy, but also cognizant of the war in Iran, newfound talk about interest rates possibly going up instead of down, an almost-here midterm election, and the always lurking ‘buy the rumor but sell the fact’ phenomenon. That last has companies beating expectations for earnings but being punished for not beating ‘by enough’ or for not guiding higher ‘by enough.’ As stocks are flirting with all-time highs, the bar to further impress is indeed set high. We did see a sentiment dip this week on the NYSE, where insiders sold at a greater-than-normal rate. But one-week moves like this are not unprecedented — and with insider-transaction volume about to fall off a cliff, we are not inclined to wave a red flag at this point. On a sector basis, things are interesting. The neutral stance is supported by weekly data from Vickers Stock Research that shows seven S&P sectors with neutral insider sentiment, one that is bearish, and three that are bullish (Energy, Industrial, and Materials). Information Technology remains the lone bearish sector, while also be
