Even as equities recover from a turbulent start to August, Morgan Stanley prefers to pick stocks on a name by name basis. The S & P 500 has erased losses from a steep sell-off that started August trading. Both the broad market index and the Nasdaq Composite are up about 1.
7% month-to-date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is slightly positive. Stocks have taken a breather in recent days, however. "The market has recovered from its sell off the first week of August but the future remains uncertain as we look to the upcoming jobs report to provide confidence that near term risks to growth have subsided," equity strategist Michelle Weaver wrote on Wednesday.
"Careful stock selection based on idiosyncratic factors is especially important in this type of environment." Here's a look at some of the firm's top picks, including Apple and DraftKings . All the stocks on the list have an overweight rating from Morgan Stanley.
Shares of the iPhone maker have gained 17% in 2024. Morgan Stanley's $273 per share price target implies more than 20% upside from Wednesday's close. Apple's forthcoming artificial intelligence suite, labeled Apple Intelligence and spearheaded by the rollout of iPhone 16 in September, is a key tailwind that could drive the company's largest handset upgrade cycle to date, Morgan Stanley said.
AAPL YTD mountain Apple stock has climbed more than 17% in 2024. But "longer-term, investments in AI, payments, cloud, health, and home, and long runway to grow spend per .