At the beginning of April, the Nasdaq 100 officially entered a bull market. In the past month alone it has risen by 12%. Granted, other stock markets around the world have also increased during this period. But the strong gains on some individual US tech stocks has been mighty impressive.
Here are two that I’m considering at the moment.
All aboard the AI train
The big name dominating conversations is Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). It has become the newest member of the exclusive $1trn club, a very small group of stocks with a market-cap of $1trn or more.
The 168% surge over the past year is strong, with 43% of the move coming in just the past month. This follows the release of better than expected earnings, with a positive outlook focused on servicing the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
I’ll admit that after the 24% jump in the day following the earnings report I was a little cautious about whether the stock was in a bubble. The concern about it being overvalued when using more traditional metrics is a risk of buying now.
However, since the jump it has continued to trade higher and higher. This gives me the impression that the broader market feels revenue and profits are likely to keep growing.
From research that I saw last week, the AI market size is due to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 38.1% through to 2030. This is huge. If realised, I expect the Nvidia share price to be significantly higher than it is now, and could become the largest company by market-cap in the world.
Not just a pandemic stock
The second company is Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM). The share price is down 36% over the past year.
I know the question everyone is thinking right now. That was a pandemic stock! What’s the point in buying it now we aren’t in lockdown?
To begin with, even though we’ve returned to freedom of movement, Zoom has continued to have a large presence in business life. It’s managed to cement its position as the go-to video communication provider. This exists both in business, but also in education, religion and sports.
This has allowed revenue to continue to grow, with total revenue for Q1 up 3% versus the same quarter last year.
By contrast to Nvidia, valuation isn’t a problem. The Zoom share price is now back at levels seen in January 2020, before the pandemic even began! Yet with the company now larger, I feel this is a great entry to purchase.
I believe the main risk for the company is trying to diversify too much. Initiatives such as Marketplace and ZoomIQ sound interesting, but it needs to remember the core offer of video conferencing is key.
I’m thinking about buying both US stocks shortly with free cash, as I expect the bull market to continue.