As equities struggle to build on a strong 2024, Mizuho Securities laid out its top picks for January that can buck the trend. Stocks fell slightly on Wednesday , with Wall Street struggling to recover from a steep sell-off in the previous session. On Tuesday, the S & P 500 shed more than 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.9%. Those moves come as new services data signals stickier inflation. Both benchmarks are coming off banner years, reaching all-time highs.
Despite the recent market turbulence, Mizuho is eyeing its top ideas moving forward. Here's a look at some of the names that made Mizuho's list. All names are outperform rated by the firm. Online pet food retailer Chewy made the list. Shares have advanced more than 70% over the past year. Analyst David Bellinger said he expects a recovery in online pet goods shopping to lift Chewy stock and listed potential benefits from further automation as a catalyst. 'CHWY checks several boxes on our thematic list for 2025, including exposure to secular category growth, a building retail media business, and further benefits of automation to come,' Bellinger said. The analyst's $42 per share price target equates to about 17% upside from Tuesday's close. Analysts in general are mostly bullish on the stock. LSEG data shows that 19 of 31 who cover it rate it a buy or strong buy. The average price target, though, points to just 3.5% upside. Amazon also made the cut. The stock has gained more than 48% over the past year, and analyst James Lee thinks the stock can rise another 17% ahead. He has a $260 per share price target on the stock. Lee said investors may not be giving Amazon's cloud architecture, Amazon Web Services, as well as the company's work with generative artificial intelligence enough credit — which could be a strong growth driver for the 'Magnificent Seven' member. 'We believe strong ecosystem and marketplace approach for Gen-AI are not fully appreciated by investors,' Lee sai