Market Digest: CAKE, USB

Summary

Insider sentiment has improved over the past several weeks, with multiple indicators providing relatively positive results as compared to their recent readings. The overall Insider Index from Vickers Stock Research, which had steadily deteriorated from late 2023 through mid-2024, has now logged multiple weeks of improvement, coming in at -17.55 this week versus -18.55 in the prior week, -19.57 in the week before, and a low of -20.98 in early August. While this is still far from the reading of -7.79 recorded in November 2023 (as the market began a notable rally), it still signals an apparent changing mindset from insiders. Meanwhile, Vickers' Total One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio has improved to 2.86 from last week's reading of 4.62, while the Total eight-week reading has improved to 4.02 from the prior week's 4.49. This signals an increase in buying activity among insiders as compared to selling activity. With the start of earnings season now less than one month away, we will be watching to see if this trend continues in the weeks before insiders are again heavily restricted from trading their stocks. On a sector basis, there was notable insider buying in the Energy sector, with shares valued at $66 million bought versus just $3 million sol