2024: The Year We Beat The Pulp Out Of Stocks 🍊

As we searched for a clever introduction to the play on words in the title of today’s edition of The Juice, we discovered that orange juice prices have skyrocketed. 

For as much as we covered inflation in 2024, The Juice didn’t notice. Ironically, we don’t drink much OJ. And that’s probably a good thing. The price of a 16-ounce container of orange juice frozen concentrate hit an all-time high of $4.28 in April, up 42% year over year. 

If you trade commodities, maybe you have paid attention to orange juice. OJ contracts are up 58% this year, having hit an all-time high of 589 in September. Impressive, however cocoa is up 164% on the year. Coffee contracts have also increased by 58%. 

Maybe we have it all wrong. Buying stocks to try to beat inflation. We might consider looking at commodities if it weren’t for the fact that The Juice beat the pulp out of stocks — for the most part — in 2024.

One of the stocks we’re most proud of recommending and sticking with is DoorDash (DASH).  

While interest in DASH has increased a little throughout the year, it still pales in comparison to the searches retail and professional investors conduct for Uber (UBER) in our Trackstar database. Both companies fall in the broad software application category. They’re both story stocks. And, while we have said you said buy both since 2022 actually, we have been way more bullish on DASH than UBER.

Okay, fine, we wish we would have raved about Microstrategy (MSTR), the most searched software application stock across the platforms of our 100+ financial media partners. It’s up about 500% YTD. We can’t find them all. But it’s not like we said don’t buy MSTR!

• Up roughly 80% YTD, DASH has outpaced the names on today’s Trackstar list by a meaningful margin over the same period:
  • Salesforce.com (CRM): +38%
  • Crowdstrike (CRWD): +49%
  • Shopify (SHOP): +55%
  • Uber: +3%

DoorDash is a legit long-term story stock. Uber’s future is in driverless cars. That’s why they’re partnering with Waymo. 

For the record, we made our money in Uber. We first recommended buying the stock in freaking November 2022. At the time it traded for just under $30 a share. We rode that puppy as high as $87. And, even if you didn’t take money off of the table, you’re still up with UBER stock at around 60%. Even with UBER’s late-2024 plunge, the pick remains a double. 

However, here in LA, The Juice no longer rides in Ubers. We take Waymos. They’re superior. You don’t have to talk to an annoying or otherwise weird driver who relies on GPS, drives like an idiot and makes dumb decision after dumb decision. With Waymo, you always get the most efficient route. Plus, the cars are sweet, high-end Jaguars. 

This said, we still use DoorDash regularly. 

When we first said to buy DASH — in late November 2022 — the company was losing money and shares traded for around $55 each. Now, they’re at approximately $175. Fast forward to 2024 and DoorDash is profitable and in the early innings of both domestic and, maybe more importantly, international expansion. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — wait, that was last week (!) — and DASH looks a lot like Amazon.com (AMZN). In terms of being positioned to touch consumers in so many places (get your mind out of the gutter), we haven’t seen a company with an ecosystem like the one DoorDash is building since, well, Amazon. Needless to say, we like the stock for long-term investors in 2025. 

Another stock we still love is the one we called “The Perfect Dividend Stock For Your Retirement Portfolio” in March. 

Can you guess who it is? 

Meta Platforms (META), of course. Yes, META is a dividend payer (in case you missed it) and returned about 80% in 2024:

52 years ago, WMT was one of those stocks you bought for your newborn baby and forgot about. If it wasn’t already there prior to the dividend, META looks to be now.

Keep buying the Magnificent 7, broad market ETFs such as SPY and QQQ and play AI with the Magnificent 7, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) (up roughly 47% YTD) and one of our favorite AI dividend stocks, Corning (GLW) (up around 52% in 2024). 

After creating this solid portfolio core, keep your eyes open for emerging alternative investments. 

The Bottom Line: As they have been through the end of 2024, alts will be a huge focus for The Juice in 2025. Tell a friend to subscribe to The Juice for free, as we use the New Year to help you craft the ultimate long-term portfolio composed of traditional investments, tech stocks, great story stocks such as DASH, dividend payers and — equally as exciting — alternative investments. 

Of course, we’ll continue our award-winning (actually, we didn’t win any awards, though we should have) coverage of the two most important economic issues of the day — housing and cost of living. All in an attempt to make you even better with money in 2025 than we did in 2024. 

We’re back with you on January 2nd, 2025. Until then, everybody at The Juice hopes you are having a great holiday season and wishes you a safe and festive New Year.

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