2024 has been “one big valuation surprise” that has been “dominated by the [Magnificent] Seven megacap growth cohort,” Citi head of US equity strategy Scott Chonert tells Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton on Market Domination.
The strategist says not only does the Magnificent Seven group, made up of Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Tesla (TSLA), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Apple (AAPL), has more room to run in 2025, the stocks could actually function as a defensive play amid market uncertainty.
“We’re thinking the Mag Seven actually unfold as a quasi staple,” Chronert says, explaining, “Usually you go to [consumer] staples when you have uncertain economic conditions because of the persistence of earnings growth.”
“The Mag Seven, we think, that forward-looking earnings growth for certainly for [2025] and probably into [2026] is fairly visible. So all told, when you get concerned about other things at work in the market and the economy, the Mag Seven actually have this potential to be a quote, defensive if you will.”
The strategist highlights the phrase “growth is defensive,” saying, “That’s what’s going on here.” He notes, “These companies probably can’t just live on meeting expectations. They need to continue to meet beat and then probably raise forward expectations as well” to maintain their “defensive” status.
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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
