- A handful of under-the-radar assets across markets saw surprising gains in 2023.
- Abercrombie & Fitch’s stock has soared by 273% this year, while alt-coin Solana has gained almost 600%.
- In commodities, poor weather damaged olive oil and cocoa crops, boosting prices, while uranium also soared.
From crypto stocks to the Magnificent Seven to the makers of weight loss drugs like Ozempic, big picture trends drove gains across the market this year.
But there were also a handful of surprise winners that saw big returns in 2023.
From shares of a beloved millennial retailer to a material at the heart of the transition away from fossil fuels, these five under-the-radar assets saw stellar gains.
Abercrombie & Fitch stock
The king of millennial retail fashion in the 2000s has been working towards a comeback — and investors like what they see. The stock soared by 290% this year, keeping pace with mega-cap tech darlings like like Nvidia and Meta.
Abercrombie exceeded revenue expectations in its latest quarterly report ringing up $1.06 billion, and the company upped its sales outlook to 12%-14% from 10%. Net sales were up 30% year-over-year in the quarter.
The growth bucks trends showing consumers may be pulling back on spending, and the brand has handily beaten the performance of competitors grappling for a bigger share of younger Americans’ wardrobes.
Olive oil
A major drought in Europe damaged olive harvests this year, creating a huge shortage of olive oil. As a result, prices have skyrocketed.
This month, the International Olive Council reported the price of extra virgin olive oil has surged by almost 50% since last year to $0.23 per ounce.
On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that surging prices have triggered a rise in thefts of olives and olive oil. In Greece, it’s led some entrepreneurs to market the product as a luxury item in foreign markets.
Cocoa
Cocoa prices have also been jolted by adverse weather this year.
Torrential rains in West Africa spread a pod-withering disease across the crops earlier in the year, and an annual windy stretch called the “harmattan” has hit the Ivory Coast, further threatening cocoa harvests, BNN Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The weather patterns have pushed cocoa prices to see their biggest price spike since 2008.
Last month, prices were hovering at 45-year highs, with futures trading at over $4,000 per metric ton, according to a Bloomberg report. BNN said the most active cocoa contract traded as high as £3,588 on Dec. 18.
Solana
So called alt-coins were battered by market events in 2022 including the crypto winter that sunk a number of firms exposed to the space, and by the spectacular collapse of FTX at the end of the year.
Among those tokens that took its licks is solana, which has posted a blockbuster comeback in 2023, surging over 560% this year. The token was trading higher still on Friday, at $106.
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was a big fan of the token, buying solana when it was just $0.20. At his trial, he said that he’d used funds from Alameda, FTX’s sister trading firm, to make purchases of the crypto.
Uranium
Uranium prices have been on a tear this year, fueled by a renaissance in nuclear power amid the planned transition away from fossil fuels.
In November, uranium prices topped $80 for the first time in 15 years. The prospect of a growing nuclear power sector has seen hedge funds lay bets in mining shares and uranium derivatives.
In October, Bloomberg Intelligence found that the price of uranium has soared by a whopping 125% since the end of 2020. In the same time frame, uranium ETF assets grew twenty-fold.
