It’s that time again…
It’s Thursday, so I’ll be highlighting the stocks that have newly popped up as “Bullish” in my Green Zone Power Ratings system.
But first, let’s talk Mag 7 earnings. As I’ve been writing for weeks, market leadership is shifting away from megacap tech stocks, and we’re seeing that today in Microsoft’s (MSFT) quarterly earnings, announced yesterday after the bell.
Wall Street didn’t like what it saw…
Despite Azure cloud sales that were slightly better expected, the shares dropped 5% after hours.
The reason?
Microsoft’s capital spending hit a new all-time high of $37.5 billion, up 66% from a year earlier, and exceeding analyst estimates. Wall Street is taking note of the gargantuan sums of money Microsoft is spending on AI infrastructure… and starting to ask when the payoff is coming.
You know I’m no techphobe. My team and I use AI daily. It’s already permeating every aspect of the American economy, and we’re still in the early innings.
But the economics are awful.
OpenAI, Google, Meta and the rest are desperately trying to outspend each other in the hopes of making an incrementally better model… only to have the competition catch up the next day. Much like the telecom bubble of the 1990s, it’s not so clear that the companies shelling out billions in capital spending today are the ones who will ultimately benefit.
With competition among the major players brutal… and with open source models like China’s DeepSeek offering similar performance at a fraction of the cost… it’s unclear that any of these investments will be profitable for Microsoft and its peers.
Meanwhile, market sentiment is shifting. Investors are remembering that there are 493 other high-quality blue chips beyond the Mag 7 in the S&P 500 and thousands more in the small and mid-cap space… real companies that build real things, most (if not all!) of whom will be using AI in the coming years to get more efficient.
As I wrote earlier this week, the “old economy” is dominating the market in 2026. And the stocks popping up as newly “Bullish” on my Green Zone Power Ratings system confirms that.
So, let’s start with the newly “Bullish” members of the S&P 500.
S&P 500 New Bulls
It’s a small list this week, limited to just two names. Let’s take a closer look.
AMETEK (AME) designs, manufactures and sells advanced electronic instruments and electromechanical devices. Their products help companies measure, control, automate, and analyze complex processes.
It’s no coincidence that that sounds “like AI.”As AI moves beyond the screen into the physical world of robotics and automation, AMETEK is the perfect example of a company whose products will be in demand.
The stock rates particularly well on quality, with a factor score of 91, and its growth and volatility factors don’t look too shabby either at 75 and 73.
Also popping up on my “Bullish” screen is industrial and aerospace conglomerate Textron (TXT). Textron is primarily a defense play as a maker of helicopters, but the company also builds general aviation aircraft under the Cessna and Beechcraft brands as well as specialty vehicles like baggage tractors for airports. Textron sports “Bullish” factor ratings on its quality, value and volatility factors.
New Bulls Outside the S&P 500
Let’s cast the net a little wider and look at the newly “Bullish” stocks outside of the S&P 500. I ran a screen for the top 20 stocks that saw the greatest jump in their score over the past month.
Immediately, a few things are obvious. As has been the case for several weeks running, this is a distinctly low-tech collection of stocks. It’s heavy in smaller and regional banks and in mining, including gold miner Banyan Gold Corp (BYAGF) and lithium miner Q2 Metals Corp (QUEXF) near the top of the list.
One particularly gritty old-economy stock is Greif (GEF), which made the top of the list with a 47-point improvement in its Green Zone Power Rating over the past month.
Greif manufactures industrial packing products like steel drums, intermediate bulk containers, containerboard and specialized tubing products. It also provides logistics services and container cleaning and maintenance.
Greif’s share price has been choppy over the past few years, but the stocks rates as “Bullish” on its value and volatility factors and, for good measure, pays a 3% dividend.
To good profits,
Adam O’Dell
Editor, What My System Says Today
P.S. – The Private Mag 7 Wealth Summit is going LIVE at 1 PM EST Today — and Matt Milner is sharing why he believes seven pre-IPO names are lining up for a rare window of massive upside as the IPO market heats back up. If you’ve ever felt like you only hear about the next giant after it’s already obvious, then THIS is your chance to see the story while it’s still forming. Click here to watch the video.
