13 Best Major Stocks to Buy Right Now

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In this piece, we will take a look at the 13 best major stocks to buy right now. If you want to skip our coverage of the latest stock market news and some recent trends, then you can take a look at the 5 Best Major Stocks to Buy Right Now.

The start of 2024 for the stock market is more of the same. The first month of the year saw investors turn their attention to the Federal Reserve as usual in order to set expectations for the remainder of 2024. The Fed, if you're unaware, has been rapidly raising interest rates to combat inflation. Now that inflation has started to drop, Wall Street is eager to know when rates will start to drop, and on this front, ironically, the economy is proving to be the biggest hurdle in forcing the Fed's hand.

Higher interest rates increase the cost of doing business and restrict consumer access to capital. This means that firms have a tougher time posting both revenue and earnings growth, and when their figures don't grow, neither does the economy. However, since the American economy continues to outshine peers, the Fed has more leeway to keep rates higher and deflate Wall Street's balloon that had become accustomed to easy money after the 2008 Great Recession and the more recent coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, even as rates are high, the stock market is still continuing to impress. In fact, bears have been left rather red faced as major indexes such as the NASDAQ Composite and the S&P 500 have continued to soar despite the depressing effects that high interest rates have on stock valuation. In fact, despite the tepid interest rate environment, it's the S&P 500 that has once again proven that no matter how shrewd analysts are, they can still miss out on major trends.

This is because the flagship Wall Street stock index which contains the crown jewels of the American stock market set a new all time record in February 2024 when it soared above 5,000 points for the first time in its history. Quite a sharp turnaround from the tail end of 2022 had seen speculation far and wide that a recession was incoming and that everyone should batten down their hatches.

Just like 2023 saw the NASDAQ 100 soar to new highs on the back of major stocks such as NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA). 2024's record setting index levels are also influenced by such companies. The start of the year ushered in all important earnings season that saw major stocks the likes of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) take the lead on the artificial intelligence front. A.I. was the biggest theme on the stock market last year, and the mega stock earnings calls saw their management share strategies about costs, future plans, and other data that investors parsed over with eagle eyes to see whether the hype in A.I. is really worth investing in.