Although the Chinese calendar technically ushered in the year of the dragon, it’s a bull that investors have been channeling in 2024. Indeed, stock markets around the world have continued their relentless upward march this year, seeing record highs for Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, India’s Nifty 50, Europe’s closely-watched STOXX 600, and, of course, America’s flagship S&P 500, which is up 10% this year.
Win some, lose some
Much has been written about how the “Magnificent 7” have driven the market almost on their own this year, but it hasn’t just been big tech driving markets higher. Indeed, more than 70% of the stocks in the S&P 500 have made gains in 2024, with just 134 of the index’s constituents losing ground.
None more so than Tesla. Indeed, at the time of writing, TSLA is the worst performing stock in the entire index, having lost 26% of its value so far this year, shedding some $240 billion in market cap, as the wider EV market slows down. That’s just marginally ahead of Boeing, which has been grounded after multiple mechanical failures and a mounting PR crisis that saw the CEO announce his departure last week.
At the green end of the performance spectrum are the companies benefiting from the ongoing AI hype — a trend that’s turned Nvidia into a market colossus, worth some $2.26 trillion after rising 82% this year. Ironically, Nvidia isn’t actually the best performing AI-exposed stock in the S&P 500; that honor falls to Super Micro Computer Inc, which has notched off-the-charts growth (literally, since we didn’t have space to plot it above) having gained more than 250% this year.
Other winners: Disney enjoyed an uplift as it turned the tide on streaming service losses and CEO Bob Iger gained support in the ongoing showdown with activist investor Nelson Peltz. Uber, after hitching a ride to its first-ever profitable year, has also seen its shares zoom up by 25%.
Other losers: Paramount Global and Warner Bros shares have sunk 20% and 24%, respectively, after the potential merger between the two was scrapped at the end of February.
