Analysts predict that a number of winners (and losers) will see double-digit gains in the upcoming year.
The S&P 500 index concluded January with a 2.8% gain, and 72% of its stocks were up for the month, despite all the fireworks on Monday, which included a 17% drop in Nvidia’s shares.
The S&P 500 SPX’s top and bottom-performing stocks for January are listed here. A detailed examination of the index’s and its 11 sectors’ performance and valuations can be found further down.
In this article, reinvested dividends are included in all investment returns.
Following the announcement that DeepSeek had developed generative usable artificial-intelligence technology at a significantly lower cost than previously thought, Nvidia saw a dip on Monday. Investors were concerned that this would lead to a slowdown in investment on hardware needed to build artificial intelligence technologies. Throughout the development of AI infrastructure, Nvidia has dominated the installation of graphics processing units (GPU) by data centers.
Nvidia’s stock increased 1% through Friday after plunging 11% on Monday, resulting in an 11% monthly fall.
In January, Constellation Energy (CEG) outperformed the index. As investors started to perceive it as an AI play, the stock almost doubled in 2024. Constellation announced in September that it would restart the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania and that it had signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). Constellation’s 2025 shares were up 55% as of January 24. However, the DeepSeek announcement caused investors to wonder how much power Big Tech would require to implement AI hardware, which caused the stock to drop 21% on Monday.
After two years of poor performance, CVS Health (CVS) placed highly among January’s top achievers. Additionally, if Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) stock hadn’t dropped 10% on Friday after the firm stopped its dividend, it would have also been on the list. The following table shows that both equities are trading at low price/earnings values. The final two tables at the bottom of this post show that the entire healthcare industry may likewise be regarded as a steal.
In January, GE Aerospace (GE) shares saw a 22% return. This is what remains of the former General Electric, which finished its process of dividing into three businesses in April when GE Verona Inc. (GEV), the former company’s power generation division, was spun off. This came after GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. (GEHC) was split off in January 2023. Last week, Tomi Kilgore investigated a number of catalysts for GE Aerospace.
Even though sales for the fiscal quarter ended December 29 decreased by 4% year over year, Starbucks (SBUX) was another January winner, with the stock rebounding 18%. Revenue for the quarter decreased 2.6% from the previous year. Analysts commended the company’s attempts to turn things around under the direction of Brian Niccol, who became CEO in September, and the results exceeded their expectations.
In January, Meta Platforms (META) had an 18% increase. The company announced late Wednesday that its earnings per share had climbed by 50% and that its fourth-quarter revenue had increased by 21% compared to the same period last year. MoffetNathanson Research’s Michael Nathanson described the company’s full-year performance as “incredibly strong” in a note sent to clients on Thursday.
“Meta’s ability to use AI to sustainably drive both engagement and pricing growth is a rarity in its (and the industry’s) history,” Nathanson stated. Although he maintains his price target for Mwta at $710, which is just 3% higher than Friday’s closing price of $689.18, he ranks the stock as a buy.
