(This is the best stock on the market, brought to you by Josh Brown and Shawn Russo of Resortswells Management.) Josh – “There are three types of lies,” Mark Twain once portrayed the kind. “Life, Bad Lie, Statistics” stats, or at least misleading or persuading, is Wall Street speciality since the first deal went under the Buttonwood Tree. Here’s a recent example: It can be argued that the S&P 500 energy sector is a “good investment” based on when it chooses to start the chart. Yes, there are statistics. But if you choose statistics, we can tell the story we want to tell them. Shawn shows how this heuristic applies to searching for the best stocks in the market, looking top-down by sector. Energy has been a scary pocket of the stock market since the start of a new bull market in October 2022. If you turn the chart back nine months ago, it will be a very different photo. magic! Today we’ll give you a general overview of what’s going on on the list. He then scores high school letters of the best stocks in the energy sector currently on the radar. Sean, Takeout… Sector Leaderboard As of September 22, there are 205 names in the best stocks on the market list. Top Sector Rankings: Top Industry: Top 5 Best Stocks by Relative Strength: Sector Spotlight Shawn – The energy sector is up 2% per year, remaining in the bottom half of sector performance in 2025. Energy stocks are struggling with concerns about slowing global demand and investor preferences for high-growth sectors such as high-tech and telecommunications services. The AI theme has not yet been very popular with energy stocks. It’s incredible how much the stories around your energy stock differ depending on the day you choose to show. This is the energy that has been in operation since October 12th, 2022. The bottom of the S&P 500: The performance above is incredible, but not unprecedented. When energy slows performance, it tends to do it for quite some time. The chart below shows the total returns for the XLE (Energy Sector ETF) and the S&P 500. When the series is positive, energy performs better. If it is negative, the sector will be delayed. During periods of low energy performance, delay indexes by 12% over 180 days on average. You can see it above. These low performance periods tend to last for years. Let’s take a look at the sector from the beginning of 2022 when inflation was intensifying. This was a period of significant out-of-performance energy. Energy stock has since surpassed the S&P 500 by 34%. The big inflation in 2022 was one of the biggest energy tailwinds since the 1970s. Statistical tricks aside, one of the biggest changes in energy was not about oil prices, but about behavior. After decades of all the sacrifices of production growth, the sector has discovered a religion of capital discipline. That’s part of the reason energy worked out in 2022. The management team is no longer rewarded by pumping the barrels. Instead, they can make dividends, judged by their ability to generate free cash flow and return capital through buybacks. That cultural reset makes the sector more investable than ever. Our list has some energy stocks that look interesting. Josh jumps into some of the details below to see what’s most interesting today. Valero Energy (VLO): Josh – Valero is the head of the A+ charts, class. There are other refiners that look good, but this one is already broken. Give the leash for the pullback. I’ll use $136 as a pivot point. That level was a meaningful resistance this spring during the period before liberalization. It served as a support this August. I don’t know what it is about that level, but that’s clearly where the buyer finally put the seller away. The dip below and I want to go out now. Marathon Petroleum (MPC): Another refiner, Marathon (MPC), is easy too. There are no sellers left here. That 200-day moving average shows up like a smile when stock is bid. That’s your off-ramp. I want to be more than 200 days longer. Baker Hughes (BKR): For now, we will be offering B+ to oil field services giant Baker Hughes (BKR). I like Golden Cross (50-day moving average over 200 days) on Labor Day. It also shows that he likes RSI from the 60s, and that the stocks have not yet been technically bought. The August low of 42 is your suspension. The name has already erupted, but the actual tests will come at $50 – resistance from February. A break above the persuasive volume. That’s when the fireworks start. I personally stalked this. Phillips 66 (PSX): Phillips 66 (PSX) is C. It’s hanging there, but on the sloppy side. If you have to make this trade – you think it’ll be a catch-up deal with Valero and the Marathon – use $120 as your stop. That was support this summer. If that breaks through, something is wrong. Chevron (CVX): CVX is also C. I personally own this stock. I bought it just before the release date’s tariffs fell and decided to average down in the spring rather than taking away the fast loss. I saw dividends and buybacks – both are huge – called audible to average down. Averaging isn’t something we do on our best stock list, but not everything in life is completely consistent. I don’t trust this for the time being. Give it more time to give the entry more before risking it here. I have it for now but haven’t added it at this time. Disclosure: (No) All opinions expressed by CNBC Pro contributors are opinions only and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC Universal, parent company or affiliates and may have been previously distributed on television, radio, the Internet, or other media. The above content is subject to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. This content is for informational purposes only and is not aware of any financial, investment, tax, legal advice or recommendations for purchasing security or other financial assets. Content is inherently general and does not reflect the unique personal circumstances of the individual. The above content may not be suitable for your particular situation. You should strongly consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment advisor before making any financial decisions. Investments include risk. The only examples of analysis included in this article are examples. The views and opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Ritholtz Wealth Management, LLC. Josh Brown is CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and may maintain the security position of the discussed securities. Assumptions made within the analysis do not reflect the position of Ritholtz Wealth Management, LLC.
