Market Performance: January 12, 2024.

US stocks recovered from earlier losses on Thursday to end the session mostly flat after a fresh reading on December inflation came in slightly hotter than economists had expected, raising new questions about the Federal Reserve's path on interest rates.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) which had been down as much as 0.8% during the session, closed just under the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) hovered slightly above breakeven.

Interest rate sensitive sectors lagged the most, with real estate and utility stocks ending the session lower.

"Your Rich BFF": Vivian Tu is demystifying personal finance to help young people build wealth

BOSTON - "You don't have to live off beans and rice. You're allowed to have life's little luxuries as long as you're still making a plan for the future," Vivian Tu explains. "We focus so much on cutting out every little thing that brings us joy. But why aren't we just asking for 10 to 15% raises every year or finding a side-hustle we really enjoy to maximize our income?"

If that sounds like something you think you could never do, Vivian hopes you will listen to her advice and reconsider. The former Wall Street trader and tech sales strategist shares financial information in a way that people who have never felt comfortable talking about money can hear it. She hopes that what they learn helps them live better, fuller financial lives.

Her strength-as a content creator, podcast host and now, a best-selling author-is helping people devise a financial plan based on no-nonsense strategies and information. Information that, seemingly forever, was shared among people born into wealth, which Vivian was not.

Her decision to answer the questions in a YouTube video was a function of efficiency-a way to save herself from repeating the same advice. It was lightning in a bottle. Or, more accurately, online. One hundred thousand people watched her first video the week she released it.

While most first-time content creators might have been thrilled, Vivian insists she was horrified. "How was I going to keep up with that demand? I had a full-time job. I wasn't good at making content. I look back at some of those oldest videos and... it wasn't polished," she said.

Advisors seeking stock ideas should consider these 3 themes

The first and foremost theme for 2024 in Jacobs’ view just happens to be last year’s big winner, AI. However, instead of doubling down on the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which more than doubled last year, Jacobs suggests looking beyond those few names into areas of the AI ecosystem that have yet to truly take off.

“You have to look at the tech stack, so you can look at areas like semiconductors that are doing a lot of the power behind AI,” he said. “You can look at data owners that have really useful proprietary data that can feed into AI systems.

You can look at digital infrastructure, which is really physically where AI calculations are happening as well.” Similarly, Jacobs is looking for a big year in the health care sector, but not solely in the weight-loss arena, which fared so well last year due to a gain of nearly 60% in shares of Eli Lilly.

In Jacobs’ opinion, demographics will determine the winners in years ahead. He points out that 2024 will be the first year where there are more people over the age of 65 in the United States than under the age of 15. “We’re looking specifically within health care and people developing drugs that really serve those senior citizens,” he said.

“This could be drug developers for Alzheimer’s, for Parkinson’s, heart disease. Yes, weight loss as well. But it’s really looking at a lot of different health care innovation powered by genomics research that will treat senior citizens in the United States and globally.”

Finally, Jacobs said that recent changes in America’s industrial and trade policies are creating investing opportunities as more manufacturing returns to the U.S. or skips across the globe to a new trading partner.

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