With the first trading day of 2025 underway, IG North America CEO JJ Kinahan joins Brad Smith and Madison Mills on Morning Brief to outline three stocks clients are most bullish on, based on stock activity, and three bear picks. Kinahan tells the Morning Brief team that Cisco Systems (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT), and Reddit (RDDT) are the top bullish picks. "[Cisco] is one that I think is really interesting," Kinahan says, adding, "We hear so much about AI ... and what I think people sometimes forget is you really need the networkers also" and, "I think the networking side of it is the most underrated side of what's going on in AI." He notes, "Cisco is really well positioned [and] we've seen our clients and our Tastytrade brokerage side really start to over the last three weeks, particularly, buy this stock." The second name that clients have been "buying significantly" is Microsoft, which Kinahan says is "not a big surprise" given "the fact that it's a darling of retail [investors, it's] usually one of the top three names." "The last one on there [is] Reddit and what we've seen there is not only our clients loving it. I think there was [some] doubt [for] some people if it could compete in the social media context, [but] they've done an incredible job overall of continuing to add users" and have gained bullish calls from analysts. On the other hand, Kinahan says three stocks that have seen bearish trading activity heading into 2025 are Dell Technologies (DELL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Pfizer (PFE). To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan...

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