The stock market's impressive performance in 2023, with a staggering 24% return for the S&P 500 Index ($SPX), might have defied expectations - but stocks are still on the rise in 2024, and many of the top performers have been mega-cap stocks. Those are the big guns with market caps over $200 billion, and these household names tend to be very well-represented in benchmark equity indexes like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 Index ($IUXX).
Some market watchers have grown skeptical about how much upside is left for some of these outperforming mega-caps, and it's a fair question, particularly as former market leaders like Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA) have already corrected off their highs. But with today's hot inflation data crushing investors' 2024 rate-cut hopes, it's worth pointing out that some mega-cap stocks offer a measure of safe-haven appeal, too. Many of these companies are still growing, despite already being deeply embedded in the global economy - and some of them offer pretty steady dividend payments, too.
