Dear clients,
We would like to inform you that due to the Martin Luther King Day in the U.S., on Monday, 20 January, 2025, the trading hours of some CFD markets will be changed as follows:
The Best Stocks of 2024 and Expectations for 2025
2024: A Standout Year for the Markets
2024 emerged as one of the better years for the financial markets, with the S&P 500 posting a robust 25% gain and the Nasdaq Composite, which tracks nearly all Nasdaq-listed companies, surging by 32%.
Over 55% of the top 30 companies by growth in the Nasdaq Composite were from the biotech and technology sectors, showing the market’s strong focus on innovation and technological advancement. Similarly, in the S&P 500, technology companies dominated, comprising about 30% of the top-performing companies, followed by utilities and energy sectors. The overarching theme across these sectors was artificial intelligence (AI), which played a massive role in driving the market.
Changes to Trading Hours over Christmas and New Year
Dear Clients,
We would like to inform you that there will be changes to the trading hours of some markets during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.
Streaming platforms and tech giants: who did better?
The outgoing 2024 was generally strong for the streaming platforms whose number constantly rises and the tech giants. But some did better than others. In his appearance on Bloomberg TV Bulgaria, Ivailo Chaushev, Chief Market Analyst at Deltastock, takes a look at some of them.
Gods of War: Market Opportunities in the Defence Sector in 2025
In 2023, global military expenditure rose for the ninth consecutive year, exceeding $2.4 trillion. This surge, fueled by the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war and escalating geopolitical tensions, marked a 6.8% increase—the largest annual rise since 2009. This pushed world military spending to its highest level recorded by SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). The global military burden, defined as military expenditure as a share of GDP, reached 2.3%, with governments dedicating an average of 6.9% of their budgets to defence or approximately $306 per person.
This week’s top stories
This week saw some interesting market developments and forecasts and we have picked several of them for our weekly review:
RBC Sees S&P 500 Rising to 6,600 by End of 2025