(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — First things first, Netflix (NFLX) dropped off our list of the Best Stocks in the Market last week after reporting a disappointing earnings quarter because of a one-time tax issue with the Brazilian IRS. I wish I were kidding, but I’m not. That’s literally what happened. Absent the surprise charge, NFLX would have beaten The Street’s estimates. Guidance was good and the tone of the call was solidly upbeat. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. NFLX went into this fall as one of the biggest winners in the market this year. Unfortunately, while it’s still up a lot, it’s no longer among the Best Stocks statistically. We wrote positively about it just a couple of weeks back and that turned out to have been bad timing in light of this fluke EPS miss. This is an unfortunate, but necessary reality when you’re trading stocks. If there were no chance of them going down, the market would sell at 100x earnings and there’d be no opportunities left. Moments like these are why we focus on avoiding downtrends. I’ve decided to stick with it as an investment — my long-term ownership of the name predates its having been added to the list — but for the purposes of this column, it’s a weak stock getting weaker and we manage risk for a reason. You can watch this CNBC clip to hear my post-earnings comments: I wanted to get the bad news out of the way because we have lots of other fun stuff to get into today, including some energy sector stocks on our list reporting earnings. Here’s Sean, I’ll be back afterward… Sean — Oil prices have been swinging back and forth over the past week as traders reacted to a mix of conflicting signals on supply and demand. There were sanctions applied on Russian oil producers that initially sent prices higher on fears of tighter supply. However there are conflicting concerns offsetting those gains due to slowing oil demand. Confusion over OPEC’s expected production, confused growth expectations, and shifting macro environments has led to some volatility. The price of oil has gone from $66 in September down to $56 early last week, and is now back above $60. This has shaken up our energy stocks on the Best Stocks list and a few of them are nearing key support levels just as earnings season begins to heat up. We have two energy stocks that have already reported and two that are due to report in the coming weeks. Both Baker Hughes (BKR) and Valero (VLO) reported earnings last week. BKR, an oilfield services giant, beat on top and bottom lines with net income growing 9% year-over-year and EBITDA margins improving 20 basis points in the past year, up to 17.7%. BKR reported an increase to its earning guidance for the year and targeted a 20% EBITDA margin by 2028. BKR also recently acquired Chart Industries in an all-cash deal, which is expected to close in 2026. This deal gives BKR more exposure to industrial and energy-focused technology, with Chart Industries’ core business focused on equipment for gas & liquid molecule handling in industrial & energy end-markets. VLO, the leading US oil refinery company in America, also beat on its top and bottom lines with an impressive $1.3 billion returned to stockholders for the quarter and $2.6 billion returned year to date through dividends and buybacks. VLO reached record refinery utilization at 97% – meaning 97% of refining capacity is getting used with the Gulf Coast and North Atlantic regions hitting all time utilization highs. You can see the market reacted well to both reports from the 23rd: The other two energy stocks on our list are Marathon Petroleum (MPC) and Phillips 66 (PSX) , which report on 11/4/2025 and 10/29/2025, respectively. Both of these stocks are within 5% of 52-week highs and both of these stocks are trading near key moving averages. Josh will get into the technicals below, but first here’s this week’s data drop on the list: Sector leaderboard As of Oct. 27, there are 199 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 best stocks by relative strength: Spotlight: Josh — We wrote up Marathon (MPC) on September 22nd as a breakout in progress. It’s higher now but still hasn’t made the big big move. Here’s what I said then and it’s still on point: “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.” I think you stay the course on this one. The Valero (VLO) print last week gives me confidence. Phillips 66 (PSX) is hanging high and ready to breakout, it just hasn’t happened yet. UBS recently raised its price target for the company which should be reporting $2.29 cents in earnings on just over $30 billion in quarterly revenue. A few days after we wrote this one up and I did my little spiel on Halftime, I actually bought the stock personally (consider this my disclosure). I have a stop loss in, but I’m hoping for the best when the company reports Wednesday morning before the open. The conference call will take place at 12 noon that day. God help us. Talk soon, thanks for checking in with us. DISCLOSURES: Josh owns Netflix, Phillips 66 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 . 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Josh Brown says this energy Best Stock is moving higher, but poised for an even bigger breakout
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