Materials started the year on fire. These ones made our Best Stocks list
(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — Welcome to the Late Cycle phase of the bull market. Kind of snuck up on us, huh? Of course, I cannot be absolutely certain of it, but this is my guess at where we are. The sector outperformance from one full cycle to the next never maps out quite perfectly, but Industrials and Financials get moving in the mid cycle and then, at some point, inflationary pressures start to build up, as do supply issues, which leads to Materials companies starting to make lots of money – their shareholders as well. I believe the strength we saw in Industrial and Financial sector stocks during 2024 and 2025 represented a textbook Mid Cycle phenomenon. And now I think the baton is being passed to the Materials names. They have a lot going for them – booming stock markets around the world, the rearmament of Western Europe, GDP growth in both developed and emerging Asia, the small cap resurgence here in the United States, lower interest rates and the maturation of the AI capex boom. Throw in the fact that mortgage rates just dipped below 6% for the first time in five years and you could even have a new housing cycle on your hands. Materials are becoming a leadership group in the stock market and I just gave you all the reasons why this outperformance is really an echo of what we may be about to see in the physical world. In early December, Michael Hartnett, Bank of America’s chief investment strategist, pointed out that commodity prices are now performing at the best relative rate to the bond market since 2008, almost two decades ago: Latin American stocks, commodity prices, commodity-related stocks, gold miners — all rallying hard. This, he said, is setting up for a bigger materials bull market this year. To paraphrase, he believes that soon all commodity charts will look like the chart of gold. Trump’s coming “run it hot” policy will likely be carried out by whichever White House operative is installed as the new Federal Reserve chair in May. Depending on whether you watch Fox News or read The New York Times, you either love this or hate this — but it’s going to happen either way. You can cheer about it or cry about it on Twitter. You can protest it or celebrate it. You can re-share earnestly written op-eds about the credibility of the institution or repost derogatory memes about Jay Powell. I’m not sure what any of that will accomplish. Your other option is to protect your portfolio and try to make some money. Sean and I are going to focus on making money. Here’s our usual rundown on what’s happening within The Best Stocks in the Market List followed by some charts and ideas. Sector leaderboard As of Jan. 12, there are 204 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 best stocks by relative strength: Sector spotlight: Materials Vulcan Materials Co. (VMC) , Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (MLM) , and CRH Plc (CRH) Materials is the best-performing sector early in 2026. The Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) is up 6% year to date, already delivering more than half of its full-year 2025 return of 10.5%. Mortgage rates recently fell to their lowest level since 2022 after President Trump outlined plans aimed at lowering borrowing costs for homebuyers, sending a rally in homebuilding stocks. Homebuilders just posted their best two-day stretch since 2022, ranking in the top 0.1% of all two-day periods since inception. Materials play a big role here. Think lumber, steel, cement and basic construction materials — falling rates could lead to higher demand for these products and services. We’re seeing this development in a few materials names, all three of which had big up days on the Trump announcement. Josh will get into the technicals below and I will tell you a bit about what some of these less-well-known companies do. Risk management CRH Plc (CRH): Sean — CRH is a global building materials company producing cement, asphalt, and other construction products, with a growing focus on North America. Its broad exposure across residential, commercial, and infrastructure end markets ties closely to construction cycles. When rates fall and building activity picks up, CRH benefits from increased demand across its diversified materials portfolio. Josh — Traders can use the rising 50-day on CRH – that’s $120. Early November would have been a whipsaw but the stock set up quickly after it breached this moving average to the downside. Sometimes you have to enter a stock twice. It’s not the end of the world and takes a lot of emotional maturity to actually do this. That’s why most of you aren’t professional traders. Investors, pay more attention to this chart, removing the 50-day entirely so you can focus: My imaginary yellow line is showing obvious intermediate-term support at $105. It was the bottom of the August gap higher and it served as textbook support this fall. Below that level and you’re wrong, move on. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (MLM): Sean — Martin Marietta supplies cement, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt to both public infrastructure projects and private construction markets. The company’s vertically integrated footprint near major population centers positions it well for periods of rising development activity. Lower borrowing costs improve project economics and housing affordability, which usually translates into higher volumes for MLM’s materials. Josh — Let’s be honest, this sector doesn’t really have any true Blue Chips but Martin Marietta and Vulcan Materials (VMC) — each with a $40 billion market cap — are the closest thing we got. Anyway, MLM is going higher. Yes, it could pause now that we’ve cleared that pesky resistance from the fall at $665, but ultimately the longs look like they want to stay put and probably will. RSI at 64 is not at all overbought, this thing looks delicious. Here’s the Wall Street consensus since October – bull, bull, bull, bull, bull, bull, bull. Seven upgrades and price target lifts. If you’re buying here, stop goes in somewhere below $600, good til canceled. You’re risking 11% for the chance of a 7-handle. I would take this trade all day long (but I always publish first, because I love you). Vulcan Materials Co. (VMC): Sean — Vulcan Materials is the largest U.S. producer of construction aggregates like crushed stone, sand, and gravel used across highways, residential, and commercial construction. Its quarries are concentrated in high-growth regions similar to MLM, where materials can’t be shipped in easily, giving the company local pricing power. Almost the same chart as Martin Marietta. Pikers will buy the $300 stock over the $600 stock and I understand that sort of piker mentality. I did retail brokerage for a decade. But I want you to know that MLM has outperformed VMC over the three-month, six-month, one-year and three-year windows. So are you a “buy the leader” person or a “catch-up trade” person? I’d use $275 as a stop if I’m getting long here. 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