Stocks have a lot to live up to in the second half of the year. At the halfway point of 2024, the major benchmarks have surged to impressive heights. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are hovering around all-time highs, having rallied roughly 15% and 18%, respectively.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , which has less exposure to tech stocks, has risen nearly 4% year to date. Much of the gains for the broad market index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq can be attributed to Nvidia , which has now grown so large it has the heft to move the entire market. Since the artificial intelligence chipmaker started taking off in January 2023, the stock has soared nearly 800%.
Just this month, it has made even more progress: Nvidia briefly topped Microsoft to become the most valuable public company . And, it's one of just three mega caps to have crossed the $3 trillion threshold. Deutsche Bank Research pointed out that Nvidia achieved this milestone in just 30 days, having made short work of adding a cool $1 trillion to its market cap.
NVDA 1Y mountain Nvidia That exuberance has many investors concerned that the AI trade — and by extension, the markets — has exhausted itself, and they're deliberating how to position their portfolios for the balance of the year. If the choppy moves of the last week are any indication, the path forward promises to be volatile. "Equity market warning lights are starting to flash, but most investors can't hear or see them as the F.
O.M.O in the markets is cranke.