US household wealth in Q3 advanced 2.9% quarter over quarter to a record $168.8T.
The Week That Was
The major U.S. equity indices had a challenging week, with most finishing lower: the Dow declined 1.82%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.64%, and the Russell 2000 fell 2.58%. The Nasdaq bucked the trend, eking out a 0.34% gain, supported by strength in big tech.
Outperformers: Consumer Discretionary (+5.85%), Communication Services (+4.11%), and Technology (+3.35%) led the charge.
Underperformers: Energy (-4.55%), Utilities (-3.84%), and Materials (-3.04%) struggled, reflecting ongoing challenges for defensive and commodity-linked industries.
The Magnificent Seven stocks thoroughly dominated the stock market in 2024, but they might not be the only place to invest in 2025.
Yes Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla have been unstoppable. And bulls like Wedbush tech strategist Dan Ives see that continuing. Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia should reach $4 trillion in market value in 2025—they’re now worth over $3 trillion—while Tesla could nearly double, thanks to its autonomous driving technology, he says.
Barron’s takes a different tack. The list of our 10 favorite stocks for 2025 reflects an expectation that opportunities exist outside the Magnificent Seven, while overall stock market returns could be more muted after back-to-back gains of more than 25% for the S&P 500 index. It reflects a bet that value-oriented investing isn’t completely dead.
Our Take:
We always enjoy reading Barron’s Editor Andrew Bary’s top picks for the year ahead and were honored to see him include our perspective on Uber, noting:
The concerns seem overblown. Uber remains the dominant ride-hailing and food-delivery service, with over 150 million users, providing robo-taxi operators access to a huge customer base. BofA Securities analyst Justin Post writes that Uber’s “entrenched position in many cities” makes it an attractive partner for robo-taxis.
Moreover, robo-taxis are now “too expensive to operate at scale,” and it could take years for them to make a big dent in the market, says Boyar Research President Jon Boyar. Uber argues that aggregating autonomous and human drivers on its platform offers a powerful combination that will benefit users by boosting reliability.
The stock, now flat on the year, is valued at less than 30 times projected 2025 earnings and under 20 times estimated 2026 earnings. Boyar says that with the big pullback, investors can “buy a great business that is growing rapidly at a reasonable price.”
There is great appeal in the notion of a simple investment product that can reliably provide double or triple the returns of a popular stock or index. The results have been disappointing, vaporizing billions of dollars, but Wall Street keeps finding plenty of eager buyers.
Leveraged exchange-traded funds are having a moment about two years after the first leveraged single-stock ETFs were introduced in the U.S. They typically use derivatives to seek magnified gains. That also will magnify losses. Through November, the size of these funds in the U.S. grew 46% this year to about $137 billion, according to Morningstar Direct. About $20 billion of them were single-stock funds, up 11-fold year to date.
The biggest leveraged ETF, at $25 billion, is the ProShares UltraPro QQQ. The fund’s manager says it seeks “daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to three times (3x) the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index.”
Our Take:
Investors should stay as far away from these investment vehicles as humanly possible.
Every morning, the man who built one of the world’s most valuable companies scrolls through his inbox and looks at 100 of the most important emails that he’ll see all day. And on Sunday nights, he pours himself a glass of his favorite Scotch and reads even more of them.
For decades, Nvidia employees have been sending notes known as T5Ts, or Top-5 Things—things they’re working on, things they’re thinking about, things they’re noticing in their corners of the business.
And for decades, Jensen Huang has been reading them. All of them.
“If you send it,” he says, “I’ll read it.”
The founder and chief executive of Nvidia reads them to keep the pulse of the company and make absolutely sure that he’s getting the sort of insights that might never reach him otherwise.
He’s been doing this since before his startup became a trillion-dollar company by selling the chips powering the AI revolution, long before he was Silicon Valley’s reigning philosopher-king and even before he had an entire wardrobe of black leather jackets. Over the years, Top-5 Things emails have become his preferred method of flattening hierarchy and something of an organizing principle for the whole company.
It’s a clever and incredibly effective management strategy—and one I’ll explain in more detail later in this column. As it turns out, it’s also classic Jensen Huang.
Our Take:
It is always interesting to see the idiosyncratic techniques successful business leaders use when running large businesses. The most interesting (and smart in our opinion) thing Jensen does is not let his employees know what his Top-5 Things are.
This NBA season, an exciting rookie has emerged as a superstar. The first-year phenom is driving opposing players crazy, turning what used to be their easiest scoring opportunities into colossal headaches.
This rookie isn’t a high flyer from Kentucky or a giant from France, though. It’s a banked section of 4,500 standing, chanting, screaming fans—who have made the Los Angeles Clippers’ new arena a complete nightmare for opposing shooters.
The idea behind “The Wall”—unveiled this season when the Clippers opened their new Intuit Dome arena in Inglewood—is to act as the next frontier in home-court advantage. It is reserved exclusively for the rowdiest Clippers die-hards. And in the first 13 of its 51 steep rows situated directly behind one basket, fans are instructed to stay on their feet for the entire game—and to scream their heads off. Signs read: “They’re called stands for a reason.”
Important Disclosures. The information herein is provided by Boyar’s Intrinsic Value Research LLC (“Boyar Research”) and: (a) is for general, informational purposes only; (b) is not tailored to the specific investment needs of any specific person or entity; and (c) should not be construed as investment advice. Boyar Research does not offer investment advisory services and is not an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or any other regulatory body. Any opinions expressed herein represent current opinions of Boyar Research only, and no representation is made with respect to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information herein. Boyar Research assumes no obligation to update or revise such information. In addition, certain information herein has been provided by and/or is based on third party sources, and, although Boyar Research believes this information to be reliable, Boyar Research has not independently verified such information and is not responsible for third-party errors. You should not assume that any investment discussed herein will be profitable or that any investment decisions in the future will be profitable. Investing in securities involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
Important Information: Performance Information.Past performance does not guarantee future results. The reports in this sample are for informational purposes only and the performance of the stocks selected is not indicative of the performance of all the stocks profiled in Boyar Research. The performance of the stocks selected and the performance of the stocks in Boyar Research may in fact diverge materially. Additional information regarding the performance of other companies featured in Boyar Research is available from Boyar Research upon request. This information is not a recommendation, or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy, an interest in any security, including an interest in any investment vehicle managed or advised by affiliates of Boyar Research. Any information that may be considered advice concerning a federal tax issue is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purposes of (i) avoiding penalties imposed under the United States Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter discussed herein.
