(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — “There are three kinds of lies,” Mark Twain once apocryphally said. “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.” Lying with statistics, or, at least, misleading or persuading with them, is a Wall Street specialty since the first trades went off beneath the Buttonwood tree. Here’s a recent example: we could easily make the case for or against the S & P 500 energy sector being a “good investment” based on when we choose to start the chart from. Yes, there are statistics. But if we’re choosing the statistics, we can tell the story we want to tell with them. Sean will show you how this heuristic applies to searching for the Best Stocks in the Market, looking top-down by sector. Energy has been a horrible pocket of the stock market since the new bull market began in October 2022. If we take the chart back to nine months earlier, it becomes a very different picture. Magic! Today we’re going to give you the usual Monday rundown of what’s happening in the list, then we’re going to do some high school letter grades of the energy sector’s Best Stocks currently on our radar. Sean, take it away… Sector leaderboard As of Sept. 22, there are 205 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 Best Stocks by relative strength: Sector spotlight Sean — The energy sector is up 2% year to date, leaving it in the bottom half of sector performance for 2025. Energy has been a relative laggard in the market, underperforming both the S & P 500 and other cyclical sectors in the past few years despite a supportive backdrop of steady oil prices and strong balance sheets. Energy stocks have struggled with concerns over slowing global demand and investor preference for higher-growth areas like tech and communication services. The AI theme hasn’t quite hit the energy stocks yet. It’s incredible how different the narrative around energy stocks is depending on the dates you choose to show. This is energy from Oct. 12, 2022 — when the S & P 500 bottomed: The above underperformance is incredible, but it’s not unprecedented. When energy underperforms, it tends to do so by a lot and for sustained periods of time. The chart below shows the total return of the XLE (energy sector ETF) vs the S & P 500 . When the series is positive, energy is outperforming; when it’s negative, sector lags: During energy’s underperforming periods, it lags the index by 12% on average over 180 days. You can see above, those periods of underperformance tend to last a number of years. Let’s take a look at the sector from the start of 2022, when inflation was heating up, which was a period of heavy outperformance for energy: Energy stocks are outperforming the S & P 500 by 34% since then in total return. The great inflation of 2022 was one of the largest tailwinds for energy since the 1970s. Statistical tricks aside, one of the biggest shifts in energy hasn’t been about oil prices at all, but about behavior. After decades of chasing production growth at all costs, the sector has found religion in capital discipline, and that’s part of the reason energy did so well in 2022. Management teams are no longer rewarded for pumping out barrels. Instead, they’re judged on their ability to generate free cash flow, return capital through buybacks and pay dividends. That cultural reset makes this sector more investible than it ever has been. There are a few energy stocks on our list that look interesting. Josh is going to dive into some of the specifics below to see which ones look most interesting today. Valero Energy(VLO): Josh — Valero is an A+ chart, head of the class. There are other refiners that look good, but this one’s already broken out. Give it some leash for pullbacks. I’d use $136 as a pivot point. That level was meaningful resistance back in the pre-liberation day period this spring. It served as support this August. I don’t know what it is about that level but it’s clearly where the buyers finally cleared out the sellers. A dip below and I would want to be out of this one. Marathon Petroleum (MPC): Marathon (MPC), another refiner, also gets an easy A. There are no sellers left here. That 200-day moving average is going to be turning up like a smile if the stock remains bid. That’s your off-ramp. Above the 200-day, I want to be long. Baker Hughes (BKR): I’d give oilfield services giant Baker Hughes (BKR) a B+ for now. I like the golden cross (50-day moving average getting above the 200-day) around Labor Day. I also like an RSI in the 60’s indicating the stock is not yet overbought technically. The August lows at 42 is your stop. This name has already broken out but the real test is going to happen at $50 – resistance from February. A break above on convincing volume and that’s when the fireworks start. I’m stalking this one personally. Phillips 66 (PSX): Phillips 66 (PSX) is a C. Sure, it’s on the list, but mostly thanks to sideways action rather than a decisive upward trend. It’s hanging up there but it’s on the sloppy side. If you must take this trade — because you think it’s going to be a catch-up trade with Valero and Marathon — fine, but use $120 as your stop. That was support this summer. If it breaks through, something’s wrong. Chevron (CVX): CVX is a C as well. I personally own this stock; bought it right before the liberation day tariff drop and decided to average down in the spring rather than take the quick loss. I looked at the dividend and buyback — both are massive — and called an audible to average down. Averaging down is not something we do on the Best Stocks list, but not everything in life is perfectly consistent. I don’t trust this thing for the time being. I’d give it more time to trend higher before risking an entry here. I’m holding it for now, but not adding at the moment. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. 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Best Stocks: A look at our energy stocks, including an A+ name
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