Five chart to start your day

Tech stocks, weight-loss drugs and AI companies drove returns in 2023. The question is will they continue to do so in 2024?

A handful of tech stocks, weight-loss drugs and AI companies provided drove returns this year – everything else was flat or negative. Among the most prolific were the “Magnificent Seven”: Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.

I made several data visualisations on them. It was hard not to. The question now is, when will their supremacy end? There is now more downside risk than further upside potential for these stocks.

This brings us to our first chart. Take a look at these four different indices.

Small-fry stocks in the Russell 2000 underperformed. These were the most neglected stocks of 2023. In fact, this index has languished in the doldrums since 2021. They are just not tech enough for investors.

Then there is a Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is one of the oldest most commonly followed equity indices in the world. Unlike most other indices, it is price-weighted rather than market-cap weighted. This meant that tech stocks couldn't have an outsized impact on performance, unlike the S&P 500, and even more tech-centric Nasdaq Composite.

Coming up:

• Nasdaq is close to reaching a new high

• The total wealth owned by the top 1 percent

• Do Americans trust the media?

• The income statement of Adobe visualised

If you like what you see here, and you would like to view the other four charts, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It costs less than two cups of coffee for a whole month’s access.