5 US Stocks to Watch in 2024 👀

In this analysis by Chuck Saletta, a respected contributor at Motley Fool, the spotlight is on 5 US stocks to keep an eye on in 2024.

2024 is starting out as anything but boring in the market.

One of the best parts of a New Year is the new opportunities that become available to investors. Companies have new plans and launch new products, and people get new tax years and new limits available to them for investing in their retirement accounts. 

That combination leads to right now being a great time to start seeking out stocks to consider. With that in mind, here are five US stocks to watch in 2024. The plans they are putting in place just might make them game changers in the year ahead.

No. 1: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Thanks to its partnership with OpenAI -- the creator of the artificial intelligence phenomenon ChatGPT -- Microsoft has a tremendous foothold in the world-changing technology of machine learning. As 2024 gets underway, Microsoft has made it clear it plans to capitalize on its AI platforms, going so far as to add a new keyboard button for its new AI system named “Copilot”.

With that button, Microsoft is proclaiming that its expectation is that AI will be available and accessible for virtually everyone. If they’re successful with making Copilot’s AI integration so seamless that it becomes commonplace, Microsoft may well drive an incredible productivity revolution.


No. 2: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B)
While Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, isn’t exactly one of the fastest growing companies around, the one thing it does have is money -- a lot of it. As of the company’s most recent quarterly report, Berkshire Hathaway held over $151 billion in cash and short term US Treasury bills. With short term US Treasuries yielding above 5%, that stash of highly liquid capital could very well earn the company over $7.5 billion in annualized interest, even if it does nothing with it.

Yet, if there’s one thing Berkshire Hathaway excels at, it’s deploying its cash effectively at times when the rest of the market is in turmoil. If 2024 turns out to be a tough year for the overall economy, then Berkshire Hathaway may once again be able to deploy its cash stash in a way that lets it earn truly stellar returns.


No. 3: Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)
Late in 2023, Tesla finally launched its long-awaited Cybertruck, delivering its first production units in November. Delays from the company’s original delivery schedule along with competitors launching in the electric pickup truck market earlier than Tesla did have led to somewhat tepid early demand.

While the Cybertruck launch may not be as strong as originally hoped, the reason to watch Tesla in 2024 is to see how it handles slowing demand for electric vehicles. As one of the world’s largest EV manufacturers, Tesla is one of the few with enough scale to attempt to try to drive demand with discounted prices.

If Tesla is able to leverage its scale to lower prices enough so that its cars are price competitive with lower to mid-range conventional cars, it might spike interest in currently reluctant consumers. That could help EVs ultimately become much more mainstream vehicles, potentially turning soft demand at the beginning of 2024 into a much healthier long-term trend.


No. 4: Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN)
With US approval of a Bitcoin-based Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) anticipated for as early as this week, Coinbase is emerging as the most likely custodian of the Bitcoins held by many of those funds. Such approval and status may very well make Bitcoin a much more attractive asset class for investors who are wary of the current environment that the cryptocurrency operates in.

Stories like the Mt. Gox exchange folding after over $400 million US worth of Bitcoin was stolen and Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud at FTX taking down that crypto empire have rightly spooked investors. A more strongly regulated and completely-in-the-public-eye ETF framework for owning Bitcoin just might make the cryptocurrency -- and the Coinbase exchange -- an everyday asset class in 2024.


No. 5: Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT)
Speaking of that potential for a Bitcoin-based ETF, any related increased interest in Bitcoin could be favorable for Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms. After all, market-based asset prices are based on supply and demand. If the demand increases, companies like Riot Platforms that specialize in creating the supply of Bitcoin could benefit from any higher prices that result.

As a fairly low-cost Bitcoin miner, Riot Platforms is well positioned to thrive if a Bitcoin ETF drives increased prices on that cryptocurrency. On the flip side, even without increased Bitcoin prices, Riot Platforms still appears to be on track to reach profitability by 2025. That combination makes it worthy of keeping an eye on in 2024.

New year, new opportunities
As these five US companies show, 2024 certainly looks like it’s starting out to be anything but boring. Make today the day you take a good look at one or more of them, and you just might find yourself on quite an adventure.

At the time of publication, Chuck Saletta owned shares of Microsoft.

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Sources: Nedbank, SEC, Bloomberg, Treasury, NPR, The Verge, ABC News, Team BHP, Arenaev, WSJ, FT, Reuters, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Riot Platforms, Wired

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