AI, EVs, Fed, consumers, election: Investor Guide highlights

In This Article:

As 2023 comes to a close, investors want to know what’s in store for the year ahead. What's in store from the Fed in 2024? Will the AI hype continue? What is the future of EV charging? How will the 2024 election impact the market? Yahoo Finance spoke to experts across the industry to answer these questions and more as part of the weekly series "Investor Guide 2024."

Market outlook (00:00:05)

Infrastructure Capital Advisors CEO Jay Hatfield anticipates the S&P to reach as high as 5,500 points by the end of 2024. Hatfield said, "Europe is in a recession. And so we think the ECB is going to be forced to cut first, which will give the U.S. Federal Reserve cover. So it's really more of a global focus."

Goldman Sachs Chief US Economist David Mericle predicts that recession odds have eased to 15%, but challenges still loom over the U.S. economy. "The soft landing has gone from on track to largely here," Mericle explained. "Rather than gliding into the mid-2s next year, which would have been a perfectly good outcome, it now looks like instead we are abruptly finding ourselves more or less at a 2% underlying pace."

AI (00:00:47)

Tech giants Nvidia (NVDA), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT) helped to drive the AI hype in 2023. But did the AI frenzy steal all of the metaverse's thunder?

Wagner James Au, Author of Making a Metaverse That Matters, joins Yahoo Finance Live to weigh in on the metaverse’s outlook for 2024 and whether a comeback is possible. He said, "The metaverse ... has actually been growing in terms of monthly active users, upwards of 600 million active users, led by Roblox (RBLX) is the leading metaverse platform."

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Global Chair Richard Lesser discussed the use cases for AI that companies will seek to implement in the coming year. "I think companies are going to end up spending a lot more on AI in the year ahead," Lesser explained. "Companies are going to realize there's a lot of value to be created here."

Ruben Roy, Stifel Applied Technology Analyst, broke down the semiconductor market outlook and the possibilities for semiconductor companies in 2024. "We think Nvidia is one of the first semiconductor companies that's cracked the code on becoming a software and services company," Roy said. "I think that's where investors should be looking. I think that's going to be the big theme when you look ahead to 2024."

Oil, energy, and gas (00:01:36)

2023 was a volatile year for oil prices (BZ=F, CL=F). Rebecca Babin, CIBC Private Wealth, U.S. Senior Energy Trader discussed some of the major catalysts for oil in 2024. Babin said, "So I think the key for 2024 is going to be what does U.S. supply do? Looking at 2024, the market looks very well balanced ... the key that people are looking at is can the U.S. continue to outperform."

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