2024’s most actively traded stocks on Stake Wall St

Nvidia Corporation ($NVDA)

In 2024, Nvidia doubled its earnings, shed US$279b from its market cap in a single day, and later briefly surpassed Apple to become the most valuable company in the world by market cap. Nvidia trades like the undisputed proxy for the AI market as the world's biggest tech firms ramp up spending on the sector. The firm's annual EPS in 2024 was US$1.19, a 585.63% YoY increase, after consistently beating earnings expectations each quarter. Demand for its next-gen Blackwell GPUs appears to be spurring optimism for a strong 2025. Nvidia was the stock most added to Stake watchlists this year.

Tesla Inc ($TSLA)

Tesla didn't have the best start to the year - three months in, it was the S&P's worst performer, down by nearly 32%. But the comeback was greater than the setback. After a Q3 earnings beat, Tesla shares had their best day since 2013 and effectively erased the loss for the year. The firm earned US$739m in regulatory credits, which provided a nice boost to profit margins. CEO Elon Musk has also projected a 20% to 30% vehicle growth next year. Tesla reclaimed its place in the trillion-dollar market cap club after a post-election rally that saw the stock's call option volume surge to a single-day record.

Apple, Inc ($AAPL)

Apple's status as the world's most valuable company makes it one of the most liquid stocks to trade, and 2024 was no exception. Shares in the smartphone maker broke record after record - the latest high on 2 December saw Apple's market cap briefly hit the US$3.6t mark. Investor sentiment was likely impacted by Apple's newest iPhone smartphones experiencing 44% more demand than its 2023 models in China, along with renewed optimism surrounding Apple Intelligence driving stronger growth in fiscal 2025.

Amazon.com Inc ($AMZN)

Amazon was one of the biggest spenders on AI this year. But the firm also proved it could balance that spending with tangible profit growth. The company reported revenue of US$158.9b last quarter, up 11% YoY, while its profit was up 55% to $US15.3b over the same period. Shares hit an all-time high after Amazon's annual cloud conference, where the firm said its Trainium2 chips would hit the market. With 30%-40% better price performance over the current generation of GPU-based instances, it's an offering that could take on Nvidia.

Gamestop Corp ($GME)

Gamestop traders have stuck around for longer than most people expected. May 2024 saw the return of Keith Gill aka 'Roaring Kitty' - a key figure behind the retail trader-led short squeeze of early 2021. $GME shares rallied nearly 70% on the day Gill simply posted a cryptic image on his long-dormant X account. The rally resulted in a US$1.2b loss for short sellers, and helped Gamestop raise over US$2b from a share sale later that month - which added to its chunky cash pile of US$4.2b. Interest earned on that cash helped somewhat offset the company's operating losses, but overall, the firm still reported an 18.7% YoY decrease in gross profit to $248.8m last quarter.

Palantir Technologies Inc ($PLTR)

Palantir is a stock that has seemingly risen from the dead in 2024. Shares are up 320% YTD, and the company has posted steady quarterly revenue growth. In Q2, Palantir closed 96 deals of at least US$1m, with 27 of them being for over US$10m. Palantir removed its shares from the NYSE and relisted on the Nasdaq exchange in anticipation of being included in the Nasdaq-100 index upon its next rebalance.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc ($AMD)

Advanced Micro Devices had a volatile year. Much like its larger rival Nvidia, it was a year of positive financial results, driven by robust AI demand. AMD beat earnings estimates in the last three quarters and reported a gross margin of 50% on its US$6.8b in Q3 revenue. Revenue from its data centre business soared 122% YoY to US$3.5b. However, its product announcements have frequently failed to inspire investor confidence, often leading to negative price movements.

Microsoft Corporation ($MSFT)

Microsoft began reaping the rewards of generative AI in 2023, but its performance this year has been more mixed. Its US$15b investment in ChatGPT creator OpenAI gave the firm an early edge in the AI race, but its big tech peers have now caught up. The firm still reported a 16% YoY increase in revenue of US$65.59b in the latest quarter and 33% growth in its cloud unit, Azure. But future revenue guidance wasn't inspiring enough for investors, and the share price suffered its worst day in two years after posting earnings.

MicroStrategy Inc ($MSTR)

MicroStrategy is all about the macro strategy. So much so that it created a subsidiary called MacroStrategy to leverage its Bitcoin holdings for financing purposes without directly impacting the parent company's balance sheet. It now holds 402,100 BTC (funding most of these purchases by selling shares) worth more than US$30b. It's the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, and its share price has even outperformed the leading digital asset this year by a considerable margin: a 490% YTD increase vs Bitcoin's 130% approximately.

Alphabet Inc ($GOOGL)

Alphabet has been an AI winner this year. The 35% YoY growth in Google Cloud revenue to US$11.35b was a celebrated metric in the company's latest quarterly report. Advertising revenue also rose 10% to US$65.9b. But the company still faces the threat of a proposed breakup (which the DOJ is pushing for) and the potential fallout from that conclusion company-wide. Despite the uncertainty, Alphabet's share price trajectory suggests that investors aren't too concerned about these antitrust regulations - at least, not yet.