Episode summary
The Best Performing Stocks of 2025 | Animal Spirits 445
Animal Spirits
· · Hosts: Michael Batnick, Ben Carlson
Summary
The hosts spent much of the episode on 2025 market leadership and the strange mix of asset prices that defined the year. They pointed to silver’s roughly 170% gain, gold’s 70% rise, and the huge run in names tied to data centers, power, and storage as evidence that the market rewarded both obvious AI beneficiaries and more unusual resource plays. They also highlighted the year’s best and worst S&P 500 performers, noting that winners included SanDisk, Western Digital, Micron, Seagate and Newmont, while laggards included The Trade Desk, Deckers, Lululemon, Target and Chipotle.
Key takeaways
- The hosts think 2025 reinforced the same basic investing lesson: don’t overtrade and don’t let fear or greed knock you off your plan.
- They view silver’s 170% surge and GE Vernova’s 1002% year-to-date move as signs that the AI buildout is reaching into commodities and power infrastructure.
- They said international small-cap value has crushed U.S. small-cap value this year, with DFA’s international fund up 48% versus 10% for the U.S. fund.
- They argued family offices are booming, with wealth overseen at 5.5 trillion and projected to reach 9 trillion by 2030.
- They think retirement planning increasingly centers on spending more early in retirement, not just maximizing account balances.
- They said 401(k)-style plans have worked broadly, with nearly 90 million participants now versus 10 million in defined benefit plans.
Notable quotes
“the top 10 best and worst performing stocks of the S&P this year”
“silver's up 170% this year and gold's up 70. and the silver chart”
“international small cap value is absolutely crushing it this year”
“Family offices have become the new power players on Wall Street”
“the total number of workers with any retirement plan at all is at an all-time high”
How the episode opens
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Welcome to Animal Sports with Michael and Ben. It is Saturday 2:30. Thank you to Big John for hopping on. This is the only time that worked for me because I'm with my family down in uh Disney. — This might be our first weekend recording ever. And this actually worked out for me, too, because the big thing we do with my family every year in the holidays is we go bowling. We're a bowling family. It's just a tradition.
Like once a year or — Around the the Christmas break, we try to go bowling, but we we've always just bowling has just been a thing with my family. No, — I feel like I feel like you're a good bowler.
I was just going to say none of us are really good bowlers, but I just Man, I just bowled two 120 plus games.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- best and worst s&p 500 stocks
- silver price
- international small caps
- family offices and private markets
- investor sentiment
Watch the episode
Watch “The Best Performing Stocks of 2025 | Animal Spirits 445” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Animal Spirits, this episode and its artwork belong to The Compound. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
