U.S. stocks were up Wednesday morning ahead of the Club’s first Monthly Meeting of 2024, as investors parsed a slew of earnings and weighed the impact of the Federal Reserve’s likely next moves. January started with a tumble in Big Tech, led down by Apple . Shares of the consumer tech giant plunged nearly 4% on Jan. 2 — its biggest one-day decline in four months — after a rare sell call from Barclays analysts. Apple, which gained 48% in 2023, has since pared its early 2024 losses. The broader market has followed tech’s up-and-down ride. After a slow start, the S & P 500 and the blue-chip Dow notched two consecutive winning weeks. The Dow traded at its highest levels to date on Monday. Meanwhile, the S & P 500 notched it third consecutive record close on Tuesday. A soft landing for the U.S. economy is looking more and more likely. Here then are our top stocks since our last meeting, from the Dec. 19 market close through Tuesday’s trading session. Note: We’re not including one of the top performers, Bausch Health , given the company’s legal overhangs and our 4 rating on the stock. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia (NVDA) year-to-date performance Coming in at No. 1 is Nvidia . The semiconductor stock surged 20.7% since the December Monthly Meeting. Shares received a nice boost when Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is spending billions on Nvidia’s AI chips. The chipmaker has continued to dominate the graphic processing unit (GPU) market used in the nascent AI tech, leaving us even more upbeat on the stock. Nvidia, of course, was a massive 2023 success story. The stock was the top performer in the S & P 500, skyrocketing 239% during the year. The Club made a small sale of the semi name , along with seven other 2023 tech winners, on Jan. 2. We’re still extremely bullish, but thought it made sense to pocket some gains, understanding mega-caps winners may take a breather as investors look for opportunities in other segments of the market. PANW YTD mountain Palo Alto Networks (PANW) year-to-date performance Palo Alto Networks jumped 11.5%, securing second place, on signs of robust demand for the Palo Alto’s one-stop shopping for cybersecurity. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new regulations, which requires publicly traded companies to disclose “material cybersecurity incidents” to shareholders, adds an extra layer of urgency for management teams across the country to ensure customer data and systems are secure. The stock received another boost after Microsoft revealed Friday afternoon that Russian hackers targeted employee email accounts starting Nov. 2023. In turn, JPMorgan analysts said Palo Alto — along with other industry players that rival Microsoft’s $20 billion cybersecurity franchise — could benefit from the breach as customers may have “greater levels of caution with regard to relying too heavily on Microsoft for security.” Jim Cramer echoed Wall Street’s remarks. “Palo Alto’s been sensational,” he added. “This stock’s clearly not done” running higher. META YTD mountain Meta Platforms year-to-date performance Meta finished third, with shares rising 9.9% as Wall Street analysts anticipate a brighter outlook for the digital advertising market in 2024. A TD Cowen survey, which polled more than 50 senior U.S. ad buyers, indicated a preference for the Facebook parent company’s Reels as well. And although not a material catalyst now, there’s also excitement around the company’s new generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which Jim recently described as “all the rage” after demoing the product. LLY YTD mountain Eli Lilly (LLY) year-to-date performance Fourth on our list of top performers is Eli Lilly . The healthcare stock increased 8.6% since mid-December thanks to encouraging updates around its new weight-loss drug Zepbound. CEO David Ricks said the treatment hit a whopping 25,000 new weekly prescriptions at the end of December. That’s huge growth considering Jefferies analysts said the drug had 7,700 weekly subscriptions in the week ended Dec. 8. GOOGL YTD mountain Alphabet (GOOGL) year-to-date performance Alphabet and Broadcom shares both jumped 7.6% over the last month, tying for No. 5. The mega-cap search and cloud giant is benefiting from the Street’s anticipated ad spend growth, along with excitement around Gemini, the company’s AI model. Meanwhile, the semiconductor stock Broadcom hit a record high last Friday on the back of continued investor interest in AI. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long NDVA, META, PANW, LLY, BHC, META, GOOGL, AAPL, AVGO. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 19, 2024 in New York City. Stocks closed up over 350 points while the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Friday.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
U.S. stocks were up Wednesday morning ahead of the Club’s first Monthly Meeting of 2024, as investors parsed a slew of earnings and weighed the impact of the Federal Reserve’s likely next moves.
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