Origin of this post
Recently I did some statistics on the best-performance of the S&P 500 Index, Nasdaq Index, and ETFs of various countries in 2024. I had some thoughts and wrote the article you are seeing now.
A review at the end of 2024
It is the end of the year again. Based on my personal opinion and the information I have collected, I found that there are several special data about the US stock market this year that I would like to share with you:
- The S&P 500’s return in 2024 is 27.58%, which is almost the same as the Nasdaq’s 34.95%, which is a very rare situation in history.
- The S&P 500 index set a new historical high 57 times in 2024, which shows that the U.S. stock market is currently in a super bull market.
- Only 31% of the stocks in the S&P 500 will outperform the index in 2024, and the only year in the past 35 years of U.S. stock history that was lower than this figure was 1998.
- The S&P 500 currently trades at 21.9 times one-year forward earnings, above its five-year average of 19.5 times. Current valuations for the S&P 500 mean that many stocks are expensive by historical standards.
- This year’s U.S. stock market has been completely defined by artificial intelligence.
- On average, within the technology industry, software stocks underperformed semiconductor stocks for the first time; almost all semiconductor stocks rose sharply, with share prices repeatedly setting new historical highs for individual stocks.
- Electric power and energy stocks are experiencing a turn for the better. Due to the power shortage demand of artificial intelligence data centers, many electric power and energy stocks, which used to have an average price-to-earnings ratio of only about 10 times, have seen a sharp rise in their share prices.
Top performing stocks in 2024 S&P 500
Here are the best performing stocks in the S&P 500 as of December 12, 2024:
Top performing Nasdaq stocks
Here are the best performing stocks in the Nasdaq as of December 12, 2024:
Country-based US stock ETFs
Here are the best performing country-focused U.S. stock ETFs as of December 12, 2024:
| Ticker | Return rate | Targeted country |
| ARGT | 61.06% | Argentina |
| EIS | 32.25% | Israel |
| EPU | 23.48% | Peru |
| EWS | 21.6% | Singapore |
| GXC | 13.93% | China |
| TUR | 13.61% | Turkey |
As for the actual returns of stock markets in various countries, please click on my post of “2024 global stock markets return by country“
Top performing stocks worldwide
All stock markets around the world and the performance of all individual stocks in 2024 are follows:
- Through QUICK FactSet, on December 16, 2024, a survey was conducted on 3,063 companies with a total market value of more than US$5 billion. Among all stock markets in the world, there are 118 companies whose stock prices will increase by more than 200% in 2024, and 54 companies whose stock prices will increase by more than 200%. American companies account for 46%. More than 2023 (105) and 2022 (27).
- Among them, the rise in generative AI-related stocks such as equipment and power infrastructure was particularly obvious; in terms of industry classification, there were 25 companies in the “electrical technology” category, including semiconductors and information technology (IT), accounting for 20% of the total.
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Disclaimer
- The content of this site is the author’s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.
- I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers’ direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.
