New Stock Basket & Portfolio Updates: September New All-Time Highs By: Christopher Mistal | September 11, 2025 | Email | Print

Today’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for August showed inflation is still above the Fed’s stated 2% target but does not appear to be accelerating much beyond expectations. With inflation metrics failing to show any troubling increases due to tariffs, focus has shifted to the labor market where data has been weakening. Earlier this week, non-farm payroll data for the 12-months ending in March was revised lower by 911,000 jobs, suggesting job growth was much slower than initially reported. Today’s seasonally adjusted weekly jobless claims also accelerated to 263,000, their highest level since 2021.

 

Soft labor market data and seemingly under control inflation metrics kept expectations of a September Fed interest rate cut alive and well today. DJIA, S&P 500, and NASDAQ all closed at new all-time highs while Russell 2000 jumped over 1.8% higher to close less than 22 points from its all-time high set way back in November 2021. Prior to today, S&P 500 had already closed at new all-time highs in September, historically the worst month of the year since 1950.

 

 

All-time closing highs are generally bullish, even in September. Looking back at past years when S&P 500 closed at a new all-time high one or more times in September, we see subsequent performance generally improve when compared to All Years. The biggest improvement was in full-month September performance, jumping from a 0.68% average loss in All Years to a 1.15% gain. Frequency of gains in September also improved significantly from just 44% to 68.2%. November’s results also show a sizable improvement in both average gain and frequency of advance. October and December were modestly softer however, remained bullish.

 

Performance from October through December has historically been solid but it also improved following new all-time highs in September with only two losses in 22 years. There was also a reduction in the maximum drawdown during the October to December period. The only double-digit decline was in 2018 when the Fed upset the market by pushing interest rates too far.

 

In the near term, we still cannot completely rule out the possibility of some market weakness and headline induced volatility. But we still anticipate any pullback, or retreat to be relatively brief and shallow, likely in the low to middle single digit range. Afterwards the current bull market is likely to propel the market to more new all-time highs as yearend approaches. It is for these reasons that we present to you today a basket of brand new stock recommendations.

 

 

This basket is being presented in advance of the “Best Months” of the year (November through April/June) for stocks. We will look to add these 16 stocks, in the table below, near current levels or on minor to modest dips. Many of the positions did strengthen in today’s solid trading session but there is no need to rush. As a reminder, the buy limit is our suggested maximum price to pay. For tracking purposes, we will allocate a hypothetical $3000 from the cash position in the Almanac Investor Stock Portfolio to each position. When considering your own allocation, please consider these stocks to be a portion of the growth equity in your portfolio.

 

For each stock we have provided the ticker, name, sector, general business description, PE, price-to-sales ratio, market value, current price, a dividend yield and a suggested buy limit and stop loss. There is also a link above the table to download the table in an Excel file (.xls format). This should aid importing and researching these stocks as most trading platforms and research software have support to import a stock list.

 

These 16 stocks all have reasonably solid valuations relative to the major indexes and corresponding sectors as well as revenue and earnings growth potential. Most also exhibit positive price and volume action as well as other constructive technical and chart pattern indications. The group of 16 covers a broad array of sectors and industries. It also runs the gamut of market capitalization with a mix of large caps with more than $10 billion in market value, midcaps in the $2-10 billion range, and small caps under $2 billion. There may even be a name or two that you are already familiar with.

 

To arrive at this list of 16, we first sifted through the universe of U.S. traded stocks for those with a market cap of at least $100 million and average daily volume of 50,000 shares or more on average over the past fifty trading sessions. Then we trimmed the list down to only those stocks with relatively low price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios with some limited exceptions.

 

We then dug into numerous individual company charts before settling on these final 16 stocks. Our underlying theme was to find reasonably priced stocks that appear to be growing sales and earnings while flying somewhat under the radar with only a limited number on The Street paying close attention to them. As market valuation goes higher, this becomes increasingly challenging, and a history of earnings surprises and positive estimate revisions becomes even more important. 

 

At the end of the screening process, we were left with a reasonably diverse basket. We did not search specifically for top-performing stocks within any specific sector; this just happens to be what remained after our selection process was completed.

 

 

 

Over the past five weeks, through the close on September 10, the Almanac Investor Stock Portfolio was up 0.9%, excluding dividends and any potential interest on the cash position, compared to a 2.9% advance by S&P 500 and a 7.1% surge by Russell 2000. Across the portfolio, mid-cap positions were best on average, advancing 6.9% followed by large-caps, up 2.5%.

 

HealWell AI (HWAIF) can still be considered on dips below its buy limit of $1. Despite reporting record revenue growth and generating a profit in Q2, shares continue to languish around the $1 price. Potentially of greater interest is the company also announced that it is seeking strategic alternatives to its clinical research and patient services businesses so it can focus on its data science and AI offerings. This could take time, but if successfully completed, HWAIF could finally breakout out of its current trading range.

 

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) can be considered with a buy limit of $45.00. Volatility persists with SMCI but it appears to have begun to recover losses from its poor, early August earnings release. The recent announcement that SMCI entered into a strategic partnership with Nokia shows that they are still in the AI business. It could also open the door to additional partnerships.

 

Interdigital (IDCC) is on hold. Shares jumped over 8% higher today to new 52-week and all-time highs on news that it was awarded an injunction against Disney. Without going too deep, Disney is likely going to have to pay up to continue using IDCC technology that is patented. This additional revenue will likely flow straight to IDCC’s bottom-line. 

 

All other previously held positions in the portfolio are on Hold. Please note some stop losses have been updated to account for recent market moves.