The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a bit of its morning luster but still charged nearly 0.6% higher amid encouraging developments in the drawn-out trade dispute between the U.S. and China. President Trump is slated to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday. Chip, mining, steel and banking industries led the broad, if not strong, advance in stocks today.
The distribution day count on both key equity indexes, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, remains high. Keep track with the Market Pulse table, embedded within every daily IBD Big Picture column.
The Russell 2000 lagged, up 0.4%. Innovator IBD 50 (FFTY) rose 0.4% for its fourth gain in six sessions, but still lies beneath its 50-day moving average.
Meanwhile, select retail firms continued to thrive in this challenging market environment.
Crocs (CROX), a former big winner during the latter half of the 2003-2007 bull market, padded its gains with a gainof more than 5% so far this week since it stomped past a 29.17 buy point in a cup with handle.
The cup began forming after shares of the Niwot, Colo., casual footwear firm near Denver peaked at 30.91 on May 7 during a failed breakout attempt past a former entry point of 29.23 in a double-bottom base. From that 30.91 high, Crox fell a steep 43% to a low of 17.53 before righting itself. Thus, the risk of a breakout failure is higher. In most cases, excellent cup bases show a decline of no more than 30% to 33% from high to low.
The highest price within the handle, or 29.07, plus a dime gives you the correct buy point. Crox remains nominally in buy range from this breakout price. The 5% buy zone goes up to 30.63.
The company is in the midst of a major earnings turnaround.
Analysts see earnings of $1.42 a share this year vs. a net loss of 71 cents in 2018, then forecast 10% growth to $1.56 in 2020. Sales have grown 5% to 9% vs. year-ago levels in the past seven quarters.
Fundamentals, Technicals And Fund Sponsorship: See All Three Here
According to IBD Stock Checkup, Crocs gets an 87 Composite Rating on a scale of 1 (unbelievably disappointing) to 99 (utterly delightful). So, an 87 is not bad at all. Watch to see if it increases week to week.
The IBD Composite Rating combines fundamental, stock price action and institutional ownership criteria that IBD research has found to be pivotal in finding superb growth stocks at the start of healthy price runs. Don't use it as a buy signal alone. That's where sound chart analysis and smart market timing also play an important role in the game of Wall Street.
Read this Investor's Corner on the various bullish chart patterns that set up potential strong breakouts, ideally in heavy turnover on the actual breakout day.
Other retailers showing even more promising action this year include Lululemon (LULU) (rising past a 194.35 buy point in a new flat base) and Target (TGT); the former is part of a four-stock contingent on IBD Leaderboard hailing from the retail sector.
In The IBD 50, Copart (CPRT), which ranks No. 4 in the IBD 50, has been outperforming the general market lately. Shares in the salvaged car auctioneer rose as much as 1.6% in the stock market today. At the session high of 81.74, the large cap held 2% above a recent breakout point of 79.84 in a nearly six-week flat base.
The 5% buy zone goes up to 83.83.
See annotated charts on the daily and weekly chart of Copart at Leaderboard to quickly learn proper entry points for establishing a new position in growth stocks as well as when to add a small amount of shares at secondary entry points as a way to compound your gains in a single stock.
A good place to add a smaller amount of shares: when the stock, after a sound breakout, rallies off a test of the 10-week moving average.
See the 10-week line in red on all weekly charts at Investors.com as well as on MarketSmith. Ideally, you want to pick growth stocks whose 10-week moving averages are rising as well as offering institutional buying support when the stock pulls back in price.
A Solid Runway Of Bottom Line Growth Ahead
Copart has a 98 Earnings Per Share Rating, meaning long- and short-term profits have increased at a faster rate than 98% of all companies in the IBD database.
Wall Street sees Copart's earnings rising 17% this year to $2.64 a share and another 12% in 2020.
The stock has a market value of $18.8 billion and 232 million shares outstanding.
Please follow Chung on Twitter at @SaitoChung and @IBD_DChung for more on growth stocks, buy points, breakouts, chart analysis and stock market analysis.
Very good