After a years-long saga of soaring inflation, experts are now declaring victory in the battle against rising costs.

“We have vanquished 9% inflation,” Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, commented during a recent CNBC interview.

Don’t miss

• Commercial real estate has outperformed the S&P 500 over 25 years. Here's how to diversify your portfolio without the headache of being a landlord

• Finish 2023 stronger than you started: 5 money moves you should make before the end of the year

• The US dollar has lost 87% of its purchasing power since 1971 — invest in this stable asset before you lose your retirement fund

Brown was referring to the 9.1% annual surge in the consumer price index recorded in June 2022. It was the largest annual increase in the index since 1981.

Since that peak, the inflation rate in the U.S. has subsided. The latest data indicates that the consumer price index rose by 3.1% in November 2023 from a year ago.

Brown added he was impressed by how well the economy handled this process.

“We did it without a single person losing a job. Please, please understand that we just [added] 199,000 new jobs last month and the war on inflation has been won,” he said.

Brown’s observations highlight a crucial point. The U.S. Federal Reserve has implemented a series of aggressive interest rate hikes to curb inflation. Higher rates can slow down the economy. Yet, the labor market has shown remarkable resilience.

According to the latest jobs report, nonfarm payrolls increased by 199,000 in November, while the unemployment rate declined to just 3.7%.

Additional achievements have been notable as well.

“VIX at 12, stocks cheap enough to buy, all of those widely held stocks in America having massive double digits, in some cases, triple-digit rallies off the lows. Plus, we averted a potential banking crisis. What else could you have asked for out of 2023?

“I don't know.”

Read more: Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now cash in on prime real estate — without the headache of being a landlord. Here's how

Stocks to buy in 2024?

In 2023, the S&P 500 climbed 25% while the Nasdaq surged 45%. Despite these impressive gains, Brown doesn't believe the market is overvalued.

“Some stocks are overvalued, but on the whole, the asset class — not overvalued,” he said.

But you have to know where to look in order to find bargains.

For instance, he discourages investors from focusing solely on the so-called Magnificent Seven — Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA). While these companies are well recognized for their strong performance and market dominance, Brown believes there are other opportunities in the market.