The market has officially entered a new bull market, leaving investors wondering which stocks can continue to outperform. The S & P 500 is up more than 3% year to date after soaring 24% in 2023 and just closed above 4,900 for the first time. The broad market index has also surged more than 36% since hitting a low in October 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has also reached all-time highs along with the Nasdaq-100 index. Similar to 2023, the megacap tech companies have been driving most of the market’s gains. Will Rhind, CEO at GraniteShares, thinks AI remains one of the strongest market themes in 2024. Here are the investor’s five stock picks for 2024, which include several chipmakers and a crypto name. The stocks are listed in no particular order. Nvidia Nvidia is “very much the leader in terms of AI stocks,” said Rhind. Shares have surged 26.1% so far in 2024, putting them up 206.7% over the last 12 months. The company will be posting its fourth quarter earnings results Feb. 21. Rhind said traders will look to see if the company can continue strong earnings performance it has managed to deliver so far. Nvidia has beaten earnings expectations for four straight quarters, per Bespoke Investment Group. Over the last two quarters, year-over-year earnings per have more than doubled. However, there’s a “huge question mark from the end of last year, particularly around the export controls of strategic and chip technologies,” Rhind said. “This year, clearly companies simply found a way to continue to export chips to China. And so I think it’s just a question of — how is that translated into the earnings revenue numbers that we’ll see?” he added. AMD Another chipmaker on Rhind’s list is AMD , which he thinks “is worth talking about, given that it hasn’t received the same attention as Nvidia. But in a market where the strongest theme is AI, clearly this would be more than one winner,” Rhind said. Within the chip sector, consumers are looking for competition and better prices, noted Rhind — and outside of Nvidia, AMD is “the best of the rest,” he said. AMD shares are up more than 20% year to date, and 135.8% during a 12-month period. AMD 1Y mountain AMD in past 12 months Coinbase The investor named Coinbase as the leading crypto stock. Shares rallied in the last few months of 2024, but the stock is down 23.6% in 2024 as enthusiasm around a bitcoin ETF has dissipated. Nonetheless, the stock has more than doubled in the last 12 months. Crypto wallet prices are “still significantly higher than where they were in the middle of last year. And I think that that will feed through to Coinbase earnings, and ultimately be another strong year for them in a market where there’s huge new renewed interest in crypto through the stock ETFs,” said Rhind. Alibaba The China-based tech giant has experienced some turbulence, amid greater concerns of a weak Chinese economy and battered stock market. However, Rhind said Alibaba is a “macro value play” that could surprise investors. Alibaba is “one of the highest quality companies, if not the highest quality company in the Chinese market,” according to Rhind. Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founders of the company, have purchased more than $200 million worth of shares in the fourth quarter, driving shares slightly higher. The stock is down 5% year to date and 37.8% over a 12-month period. “If you’re looking for exposure to China, to Chinese tech and highest quality companies out there, then to me Alibaba’s the standout,” Rhind said. Meta Rhind also favors Meta as the company focuses more on AI and away from the metaverse. Meta is also one of 2023’s top gainers, up 164.2% in 12 months. So far in 2024, the stock has risen 13.3%. To be sure, for Meta and the broader Magnificent Seven, “the gains last year were phenomenal. So it’s difficult, all things being equal, to suggest that it will be the same again,” Rhind said. “So I think we’re always expecting the numbers to come in lower than it did last year.” However, Rhind is optimistic that as the company looks at its margins more closely going forward, it will remain diligent in cost control and making AI-focused investments.
