The new year brings new opportunities to the investment world. After experiencing the most unstable year in the history of the U.S. stock market, investors are looking forward to the continuation of the young bull market in 2021. Will the U.S. stock market be a bull market or a bear market in 2021? The following is the complete list of U.S. stock market forecasts for 2021 that the editor has collected for you: whether the U.S. stock market will be a bull market or a bear market in 2021. Hope this helps everyone.
Will the U.S. stock market be a bull market or a bear market in 2021?
While a stock market crash or correction is always a possibility, there are plenty of tailwinds that suggest stocks can continue to move higher. Lending rates should remain at or near historic lows for the foreseeable future, which will encourage borrowing by growth companies. This additional capital can be used to hire, innovate, and acquire other businesses.
precision medicine
We've learned a lot in 2020 about where the future of healthcare is headed. There’s no doubt you’ll want to invest in precision medicine. By precision medicine, I mean drugs, devices and services that are designed to personalize what was previously a one-size-fits-all treatment process.
Telemedicine giant Teladoc Health (TDOC) is a good example, with the company's virtual visit volume more than tripled in the past two quarters compared to the same period last year. Teladoc fully understands that virtual visits are more convenient for patients and physicians. They are also generally cheaper for health insurance companies than in-home visits. With the addition of Livongohealth, a rapidly growing applied health signaling company, Teladoc is already at the forefront of personalized treatments.
Investors may also consider medical device leaders like DexCom (DXCM). DexCom manufactures and sells continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems to help diabetics monitor their blood sugar levels. DexCom's CGMs can also be used to provide immediate data to doctors. Considering that there are 34.2 million people with diabetes in the United States, and 88 million people with prediabetes, DexCom should continue to thrive.
cloud infrastructure
Before the pandemic, businesses large and small were steadily building their online presence and increasingly sharing data via the cloud. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend and demonstrated the importance of cloud-based infrastructure.
One of the more obvious key players in the cloud infrastructure space is e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN). Retail accounts for the majority of Amazon's total sales, but most of its operating profits come from cloud infrastructure platform Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS currently has annual sales of $46 billion. It should be responsible for tripling Amazon's operating cash flow over the next four years.
Don't ignore Alphabet (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) either. Ad placement on Google, Alphabet's internet search platform, is its main growth driver. However, the company's fastest-growing business is Google Cloud, with sales rising 45% in the third quarter of 2020. Annual sales of cloud computing are close to $14 billion. Alphabet's deep pockets and Google's brand name should be enough to compete with Amazon.
Legal industrial hemp in the United States
Investors looking for growth should also consider investing in U.S. industrial hemp stocks in 2021. The United States is the world's largest legal industrial hemp market. 2021 looks set to be a year of cycle profitability for vertically integrated multi-state operators (MSOs). Additional national-level legislation may further boost industry confidence.
GreenThumb Industries (GTBIF.US) is an MSO company at the forefront of green development. Approximately two-thirds of the company's revenue comes from industrial hemp derivatives (i.e., edibles, infused beverages, e-cigarettes, topicals, and concentrates). These derivatives have much higher profit margins than dried cannabis flower, which should help GreenThumb beat some of its peers in the profit column. GreenThumb currently has 50 operating dispensaries, but holds enough licenses to open 96 stores in a dozen states.
CrescoLabs (CRLBF.US) is also set to have a great year. Nearly half of the company's 19 open dispensaries are located in Illinois, which has license restrictions. On January 1, 2020, the Lincoln area opened the door to legal recreational marijuana sales, and by 2024, its annual sales are expected to exceed $1 billion.
In addition, Cresco has a large wholesale presence in California, giving it access to more than 575 dispensaries. California is the world’s largest legal industrial hemp market by annual sales.
companion pet
The fourth and final high-growth trend that investors should pay attention to is pet breeding. According to statistics from the American Pet Products Association, nearly 85 million households currently own pets, and it is expected that by 2020, people's spending on pet companions will reach $99 billion. Over the past 25 years, U.S. pet spending has never declined year over year.
Pet health insurance company Trupanion (TRUP) has one of the biggest opportunities in its industry. Trupanion has been building relationships with veterinarians at the clinic level for two decades, giving it an invaluable advantage over other competitors entering the pet insurance space. Currently, only 1% of pet owners in the United States have health insurance for their furry family members. Educating pet owners will help increase this prevalence in the coming years.
Freshpet (FRPT) is another fast-growing company in the companion pet space. Just as grocers seized on the growth phase of organic and natural foods in the early 2000s, Freshpet understood that pet owners would pay for higher-quality pet food and treats. Freshpet is still in its infancy, but it's already in more than 22,000 retail stores. There is also a sustainable double-digit growth opportunity ahead.