Big features and 9% yields: why now’s a tremendous time to be a inventory market investor

Again in late 2023 I stated that, heading into 2024, I’d by no means been extra excited as a inventory market investor. On the time, I used to be as bullish as I’ve ever been in 25 years of investing.

Trying again now, my pleasure was justified. As a result of proper now, it’s an unimaginable time to be an investor.

The tech revolution’s creating life-changing wealth

The world at this time’s at the moment within the midst of a robust know-how revolution. And this revolution – which is being pushed by developments in synthetic intelligence (AI) – is creating phenomenal alternatives for traders.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) – a inventory I’ve been raving about (and been invested in) for years now – is a good instance right here.

This yr, it’s up about 160%. Which means a $5k (roughly £4k) funding at first of the yr would now be value near $13k – an enormous achieve in lower than six months.

Why is the inventory surging like this? Nicely, Nvidia designs AI chips (and has an 80% share of the market). And proper now, demand for these chips – from corporations like Amazon, Meta, and Google – is off the charts.

I’ll level out that I don’t anticipate the inventory to maintain surging ceaselessly. It’s more likely to have a pullback at some stage. This might come if demand for its chips immediately slows.

Taking a long-term view nevertheless, I anticipate it to go greater. In the end, this firm’s on the coronary heart of the tech revolution.

The following industrial revolution has begun

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Thrilling developments in healthcare

It’s not nearly know-how and AI although. We’re additionally residing in an age of thrilling new healthcare developments. Weight problems/weight-loss medication are instance right here.

Weight problems’s an enormous downside globally, so demand for these new ‘GLP-1’ medication – which may help folks lose almost 20% of their physique weight – is sky-high at this time.

I’ve been shopping for shares in Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk to play this theme. I’ve additionally been investing in a healthcare fund for extra publicity.

It’s value noting that analysts at Barclays reckon weight-loss medication might be a $200bn annual market by 2030. They’ve known as it the healthcare ‘story of the last decade’.

Alternatives for dividend traders

However what if an investor’s looking for earnings and never in search of development? Nicely, there have been superb alternatives for these traders too in 2024.

Take Authorized & Basic shares, for instance. At the moment, they provide a dividend yield of about 9%. HSBC’s one other inventory paying out a whole lot of earnings. At the moment, its yield is about 7%.

With yields like this on supply, it’s potential to generate a whole lot of passive earnings from the inventory market proper now. Dividends are by no means assured although.

Extra features to return in H2?

As for the inventory market outlook for the second half of 2024, I stay bullish. I’m particularly bullish on small-cap shares which have been left behind in recent times as rates of interest have risen.

If UK/US rates of interest are lower within the second half of the yr, I anticipate a whole lot of these shares to soar.

So now might be time to take a more in-depth take a look at this space of the market, I really feel.