Charter is the product of the 2016 merger of three cable companies, each with a decades-long history in the business: Legacy Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. The firm now holds networks capable of providing television, internet access, and phone services to roughly 57 million US homes and businesses, around 35% of the country. Across this footprint, Charter serves 28 million residential and 2 million commercial customer accounts under the Spectrum brand, making it the second-largest US cable company behind Comcast. The firm also owns, in whole or in part, sports and news networks, including Spectrum SportsNet (long-term local rights to Los Angeles Lakers games), SportsNet LA (Los Angeles Dodgers), SportsNet New York (New York Mets), and Spectrum News NY1.

Charter is the product of the 2016 merger of three cable companies, each with a decades-long history in the business: Legacy Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. The firm now holds networks capable of providing television, internet access, and phone services to roughly 57 million US homes and businesses, around 35% of the country. Across this footprint, Charter serves 29 million residential and 2 million commercial customer accounts under the Spectrum brand, making it the second-largest US cable company behind Comcast. The firm also owns, in whole or in part, sports and news networks, including Spectrum SportsNet (long-term local rights to Los Angeles Lakers games), SportsNet LA (Los Angeles Dodgers), SportsNet New York (New York Mets), and Spectrum News NY1.

Charter provides cable television, high-speed internet, and digital telephone services to communities across the United States. In May 2016, Charter acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Charter is the third-largest multichannel video program distributor in the U.S. John Malone's Liberty Broadband and Advance/Newhouse, the former owner of Bright House, together own a controlling minority interest in Charter.

The S&P 500 (SPX) closed at a minor all-time high on Tuesday -- and while others are calling this a breakout, it isn't good enough for us. Initial volume on the SPY ETF was far below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day averages, and not what we want to see as the index moves into uncharted territory. Breadth was just okay, with sector strength from Energy, Materials (again), Utilities, Information Technology, Industrial, and Financial. Communication Services was hurt by a 2.8% decline in META as its 20 consecutive daily gains finally ended. Consumer Discretionary fell on weakness in Specialty Retailers, Home Construction, and Home Improvement Retailers. Breakouts, whether a range break to recovery highs or (more importantly) a breakout to all-time highs after a proper sideways consolidation, can take many forms. We prefer when they occur on at least an uptick in volume, which generally demonstrates institutional accumulation. We also like to at least see a break above the prior high by 0.5% to 1% for the SPX -- with immediate follow-through to the upside. The SPX has been drifting and building up renewed energy for almost three months and, bullishly, the 4Q EPS season looks strong and the overall market has shrugged off some nasty headlines. One sentiment indicator that caught us by surprise recently is the AAII Investor Sentiment Survey. In just three weeks (week ending February 12), bullish sentiment cratered to 28.4% from 43.4% and bearish sentiment jumped to 47.3% from 29.4%. On a net basis, that is the most bearish survey since October 2023. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)