Ari Wald, the head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, shared his views on some popular stocks as the New Year trading commences. He discussed three stocks rated by Wall Street as the "Best Investment Choices" for 2025 on the CNBC program Power Lunch: $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ Boeing $Boeing (BA.US)$ and$Howmet Aerospace (HWM.US)$Here are his specific insights:

Even if NVIDIA performs extraordinarily in 2024, Wald remains Bullish on this Stock. He stated, "It comes down to the basic tenet of trend following." He pointed out that NVIDIA's Stock price has consistently stayed above the 200-day moving average since the beginning of 2023. "We have not found any changes in our analysis... We advocate letting the winners continue to run."

As a leader in the field of AI and a favorite among retail investors, NVIDIA surged over 171% in 2024, becoming$S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$one of the top-performing stocks during this time. This also marks the fifth year of gains for NVIDIA in the past six years.

Wall Street Analysts also align with Wald's views. According to a survey by LSEG, nearly all Analysts give NVIDIA a "Buy" rating, with an average Target Price indicating over 23% upside potential for the Stock. Wald added, "Although NVIDIA has established its leadership position, there are no signs of any cracks in the trend."

Compared to NVIDIA, Wald is less optimistic about Boeing, a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Index. Boeing's performance in 2024 has been disappointing, suffering a setback early in the year due to a door failure incident involving Alaska Air flights. The Stock price fell over 32% for the year, marking Boeing's fourth year of negative returns in the past five years.

"We don't like relatively weak Stocks," Wald stated, mentioning that Boeing's Stock price continues to struggle in the overall market bull cycle. "Avoid this Stock."

Nevertheless, according to the LSEG survey, Analysts expect Boeing's Stock price to rebound by about 7%. However, most Analysts have a "Hold" rating on the Stock.

Although Wald pointed out that the overall performance of the Aviation Industry is lackluster, he believes that Howmet Aerospace (HWM.N) is a top choice worth paying attention to. "The industry as a whole hasn't really taken off, but this stock is still performing well," he said, "We remain Bullish on it."

In fact, Wald recommends that investors Buy Alaska Air's stock while the current stock price has retraced. Although the stock fell more than 7% in December 2024, it still recorded an increase of over 102% for the whole year.

According to LSEG data, most Analysts have given the stock a "Buy" rating, and the average Target Price indicates that the stock still has more than 10% upside potential.

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