Hot Picks: Three U.S. tech stocks positioned for AI growth

Detailed summary

Ron Josey assesses Airbnb, Alphabet and Amazon as AI reshapes travel bookings, online search and cloud computing.

Renewed buying in U.S. technology shares is putting business performance and valuations back in focus. Recent earnings provide a window into how major internet companies are navigating technological change.

BNN Bloomberg spoke with Ron Josey, U.S. internet analyst at Citi, about his views on the sector and the investment cases for Airbnb, Alphabet and Amazon.

LINDSAY: Welcome back. It’s time now for Hot Picks, and our next guest covers the tech sector. So let’s bring in Ron Josey, U.S. internet analyst at Citi. It’s great to have you join us. Good morning.

LINDSAY: Of course. Before we get to your Hot Picks, I want to just get your sense and hear what you think about what we’re seeing with the markets today, because it’s quite a reversal. After seeing a tech sell-off, we’re now seeing some renewed interest, some renewed hope when it comes to the technology sector. Do you think that’s justified?

RON: I do. I mean, look, we just came out of third-quarter earnings not too long ago. What we heard from so many different companies is not just the macro doing better. We hear that coming through from better advertising, greater e-commerce sales. We’re seeing that specifically here in the U.S., and frankly, I think that’s falling down or following or flowing down to the companies themselves. And so not only is e-commerce doing better, online advertising better, but of course, you also have the AI investments that are being made.

LINDSAY: Okay, and you mentioned that AI investment, and speaking of that, your first hot pick today has just announced that it’s building its own AI travel agent, so that’s Airbnb. Tell us what opportunities you see here for Airbnb.

RON: Yeah, look, I mean, there’s no doubt that travel is one of the first things that generative AI or AI-type tools are changing how you and I research and look for travel. Airbnb has something that I think is differentiated relative to others out there. They have differentiated inventory that is specific to them.

And then…

Opening of the article, excerpted from BNN Bloomberg. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.