The stock market continues to push higher, although the S&P 500 (SPX) failed to hold 6,000 for the fifth time since November 8. Once again, breadth was good and leadership was provided by the S&P 600 Small-Caps, which popped 1.8%, and the S&P 400 Mid-Caps, which tacked on 1.5%. The most-concentrated mega-cap indices -- such as the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) and S&P 100 -- lagged again, posting only minor gains. A few markets moved quite a bit, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) rising 2.5% and the 10-year yield dropping about 15 basis points to 4.26%. We previously suggested that the 10-year had reached an important level and a possible inflection point -- and with yesterday's action, we got our confirmation. Gold and silver futures plunged over 3%, while Bitcoin also fell over 3% to below $95,000; as expected, the big round number of $100,000 has provided a ceiling. Looking at a few of pieces of option data, the OEX open-interest ratio, which is total put open-interest divided by total call open-interest, remains very low. This is a non-contrarian sentiment indicator, as OEX option traders usually are quite good at identifying turning points in the market. When this ratio rises, OEX traders are becoming more bearish and vice versa -- and it's often a good idea to follow these astute investors. The CBOE equity-only put/call ratio is a contrarian sentiment reading, and the five-day has been very low for over the past two months, indicating a big appetite by smaller investors for call options. While this is concerning, generally we do not get a pullback or a correction until these investors re-verse course. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

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Volatility in the stock market during the third quarter gave institutional investors a chance to buy the dips. Taking a look at 13F filings from well-known institutional portfolios, we see that the big guns were busy adding new companies to their portfolios or expanding existing holdings. Buying occurred across a range of sectors. Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership. Form 13-Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters and have come in for 3Q24. We review 13Fs of major institutional investors, including activists, to see what they are buying and to look for trends. Activist investing is now less about generating a short-term return and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnerships. Based on data from Vickers, the following is a list of select purchases made in the third quarter by some high-profile money managers, including the Argus Research investment ratings.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.