The Magnificent Seven didn't just dominate the markets this year, they also topped the list of the most trafficked ticker pages on Yahoo Finance. Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) topped the ranking, but there were a couple of surprises in the list too. Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre breaks the list down in the video above.
You can see more from Yahoo Finance's 2024 Investor Guide here or click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
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AKIKO FUJITA: Tech stocks defied expectations this year. The Magnificent Seven, that's Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla helped the S&P 500 reach new heights in 2023. The index currently up more than 23% this year.
So which tech stocks were Yahoo Finance's biggest winners this year? And will mega-caps continue to dominate in 2024? Our very own Jared Blikre is on the case for us as part of Yahoo Finance's 2024 investor guide. Give us a breakdown, Jared.
JARED BLIKRE: Akiko, the people have spoken. And the top Yahoo Finance trending stocks for 2023, they are in. And investors are expecting for the new year. Not surprisingly, in a year that was all about the mega-caps, the Mag 7, they dominate the top 10 most popular pages visited by you on the Yahoo Finance app and website.
And the winner by far is Tesla. Its quote page views, that was seen over 300 million times this year, which is nearly double the second favorite, which is Nvidia. All the more impressive because Tesla's returns of only 103% was in sixth place by returns and that is behind AMD's 114% and ahead of Amazon's 82%. And I have the full list right here.
Nvidia, Apple, they take the third most popular slot with 135 million page views. That would be Apple. But the company is actually the second last by performance. Don't cry for shareholders though, it is up a cool 50% this year.
Now, rounding out the top five, we have Amazon. That garnered just under 100 million page views, then Microsoft. And by the way, these top five tickers have been perennial favorites by Yahoo Finance viewers for years.
And it's quite interesting to me personally to see how crowd favorites, they can persist over many different types of market environments. And surveying expectations for the new year, no one seems to be predicting another year of domination by this cadre of the Mag 7. But regardless the returns we might see over the next 12 months, it's a fairly safe bet that Tesla and Apple, they're going to be making that leaderboard again heading into 2025.
Now, back to the present in sixth place by quote views, we have AMD, which is fifth by performance. AMD might not be Nvidia, but doubling the share price this year is pretty impressive. And it goes to show that there's plenty of room for contenders riding along the AI hype wave.
And like an old friend or prodigal son, Bitcoin is back right there, the top Yahoo Finance trending tickers. It was at the top of the list for years. And I've been tracking these things, I can say that interest in crypto, it waxes and wanes strictly with the price of Bitcoin. Interest in Bitcoin dropped off a cliff with the crypto winter as a bankruptcy-riddled industry fought for its very life. But with the surge in price in October, about 60% in only two months, Bitcoin has once again entered the top 10 in popularity.
With 2024 promising to deliver a spot Bitcoin ETF and that would be a finally there and another bullish having and that's where Bitcoin creation gets cut in half. The fundamentals of Bitcoin, they are looking pretty bullish. But whether or not it makes the top 10 list next year is going to depend on how the price performs.
Now, after Bitcoin, we have Meta. That is number eight but it has actually the second highest return clocking in gains of nearly 200% only behind Nvidia. And the final two trending tickers here, they are quite interesting. We have the Chinese EV maker NIO. That's number nine though its returns are actually pretty bad. It's down 18%.
But this ticker has been a top 10 favorite for years and it's also a day trader favorite. As is Palantir, by the way. This cybersecurity stock that is a top three in returns, up 173% on the year.
A lot of traders would say why Palantir, why NIO? Difficult to say why day traders gravitate toward certain stocks, but it depends on liquidity, and how these stocks trade around events, and also on a day-to-day basis. It's not always about the absolute gains.
In general, thinking about this list will evolve and how it's going to evolve in the new year, we might be surprised to see another year of mega-cap domination. But at least a few are going to make the list like Apple and Tesla. And if crypto continues its blistering ascent, we might see another crypto ticker like Ethereum or Cardano actually make the list. But do not count out the retail trader. 2021 is not forgotten and we might see a few meme stocks in there come December 2024.
AKIKO FUJITA: So Jared a lot of that was kind of a look back at what we saw in 2023. Any surprises as you look ahead to 2024 in terms of where investors are headed?
JARED BLIKRE: I think meme stocks are not-- one should not count them out. We do have the top 20 list. And so this is 11 through 20 right here.
And you can see AMC is right in there and that's despite an 85% drop. You also see GameStop in there despite its 9% drop. So as I said, these favorites, you might see a favorite that persists over time despite these negative returns. But you will see the top 10 list, kind of, recirculate some of these names.
So if it's not the Mag 7, it's going to be a new group. But I think with all the interest that we've seen in tech, might be spreading into other industries. We might see a couple of oil and gas favorites in there. Hard to say what that would be, but Occidental Petroleum comes to mind here and also the chip stocks. If the AI wave continues, definitely going to see names like Intel, and AMD, and some others perhaps join the top 10 for next year.
AKIKO FUJITA: OK, certainly going to be an interesting one to watch to see how much momentum can continue going into 2024. Thanks so much, Jared. Well, it has been a formula--