10 Best Affordable Stocks Under $10

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In this article, we discuss the 10 best affordable stocks under $10. To skip the detailed analysis of current economic conditions and experts’ outlook around them, go directly to the 5 Best Affordable Stocks Under $10.

On March 20, the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, highlighted that the economy remains strong with substantial easing of inflation along with a robust labor market. However, he said that inflation remains relatively high compared to the Fed’s longer-run goal of 2 percent and that future inflation trends could remain uncertain. The Fed chair highlighted that the unemployment rate has been relatively low at 3.9%, and job gains have averaged around 265,000 over the last three months.

Moreover, the Fed shed light on the US GDP growth and its outlook, stating that the GDP growth reached 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and predicted a slowdown in the near future. The committee is expecting a median projection of 2.1% GDP growth for 2024 and 2% for the following two years. The Fed maintained the overnight federal funds rate at the current range of 5.25% to 5.5%, and the committee still projects three rate cuts this year. Nevertheless, Jerome Powell said that it will still depend upon incoming data.

Market Outlook According to Experts

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, chief economist of Annex Wealth Management, Brian Jacobsen, said their committee has been in discussion about “where the market narrative might shift towards,” and pointed toward the small-cap space. Jacobsen’s team also has a bullish view of the industrials, materials, and utilities sectors. He highlighted that these three sectors have underperformed and that the utilities sector could benefit a lot in case of interest rate stability or cuts. Brian Jacobsen said that the materials and industrials sectors are more “cyclically oriented”, and if manufacturing gets out of the “long hibernation” it has experienced, both sectors could even outperform for three years.

Despite the underperformance of the materials and industrial sectors compared to the broader market in 2023, both of them are competing fairly well in 2024. Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLB) has been up 8.5% year-to-date, compared to the S&P 500 10.08% gain as of March 27. On the other hand, the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI) has outperformed the S&P 500 with an 11.61% year-to-date gain.

Jeremy Siegel, Wharton School finance professor, told CNBC on March 27 that he is still optimistic about the US economy, and it isn’t showing any signs of weakness. He said that he wouldn’t be surprised about a little correction in the market, but the current bull market is strong and has “ways to go”. Professor Siegel also commented on Morgan Stanley’s executive chairman James Morgan's statement about not being shocked if the Fed doesn’t cut rates for the whole year. He said it is possible, but he thinks it is unlikely and “against the odds.”