There are only a few trading days left this year; who will emerge as the champion of the increase?
On December 19, according to the Financial Associated Press (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng), with the last Federal Reserve meeting of 2024 concluded, all major agendas of the US stock market this year have ended. Taking advantage of the market's stabilizing emotions after yesterday's sharp decline, it's just the right time to review this year's big winners in thematic speculation.
In fact, many classic themes that were speculated in the US stock market were also fervently speculated by Chinese investors this year.
S&P 500 Index Division
Based on the trend so far this year, the big data analysis software company Palantir is expected to win the championship for the year-on-year increase among the constituent stocks of the US stock market benchmark index, with an increase of 316% since the beginning of the year, practically a sure win.
(Palantir Daily Chart, Source: TradingView)
The key to Palantir's outstanding increase lies in accurately hitting multiple hot trends this year. The company's main business is intelligence analysis of Beijing Vastdata Technology, which is inherently linked to AI/machine learning and Big Data. At the same time, the company's main customers are defense and security contractors, hitting this year's booming defense concept in overseas markets. Finally, its natural B2B attributes also make it reasonable for the company to take off in the AI application windfall.
(Data as of December 19, 2024)
Interestingly, the companies ranking second and third in terms of growth (which can now only be called strong challengers) are both from the Energy sector. Among them, the American energy giant Vistra Energy has risen 247% this year, and the sustainable energy business GE Vernova, which was spun off from General Electric, has cumulatively increased by 175%.
(Vistra Energy, GE Vernova daily chart, source: TradingView)
Vistra Energy, besides transitioning from coal to gas power and engaging in the Nuclear Power Concept, is also known as a remarkable "buyback monster" in the US stock market. According to earlier Statistics, since 2021, the company has spent a total of $4.25 billion on buybacks—its latest Market Cap is only $45.2 billion.
Ranking fourth, Nvidia (up 160% year-to-date) has been extensively covered by the financial news this year, so there will be no further elaboration.
The company ranked fifth is Axon Enterprise (up 136.12%), known in Chinese as 泰瑟国际, which indicates it is involved in the production of tasers. In addition to non-lethal Weapons, the company's main Business also includes body cameras, Drones, and digital evidence management platforms—the company has also increased its revenue by signing "subscription contracts" with law enforcement agencies. It is worth mentioning that the company also offers AI services, reportedly capable of extracting "valuable information" from large volumes of video and data for the police.
Currently, the companies ranked sixth to eighth are United Airlines (up 121.69%), Texas landlord stock TPL, which has been highlighted in a financial news report earlier, and Broadcom, which has recently appeared on major financial media front pages.
NASDAQ 100 Index sector
The challengers in this sector are well known to Chinese investors. Currently, the leading stock is the AI application leader Applovin, with a year-to-date increase of 685.62%. Even though Palantir is set to be included in the NASDAQ 100 Index by the end of the year, the significant growth gap between the two is likely to pose no threat to the former.
The remaining names are mostly "old acquaintances". Investors may not be very familiar with the "AI Nuclear Power Plant" concept stock Constellation Energy (Alliant Energy, also translated as "Constellation Energy"), which is the one that signed a contract with Microsoft to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Trade Desk is a programmatic marketing software company and is considered a competitor to Applovin.
Country-themed investment competition area: China ETF is at the forefront.
As the market with the most complete range of Global ETF categories, the US stock market also provides a reference for global asset trends. According to statistics from the comprehensive US stock platform SeekingAlpha, after removing those "triple and double long" gambling-type ETFs, the Argentina ETF is likely to become the best-performing country-themed ETF overall in 2024, reflecting overseas investors' expectations for the "reversal of the country's plight."
The Israel ETF ranks second, focusing mainly on generic drug giant Teva, as well as a series of companies in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and fintech.
Following closely are the Peru and Singapore themed ETFs, with an increase of over 20%, while the China and Turkey ETFs have both achieved an increase of 13%, making them stand out among similar themed ETFs.
