The bear market of the past year has kept investors on their toes. While stocks across a variety of sectors feel the pain, few have been hit as hard as those on the growth-centric Nasdaq Composite index. Many of these growth stocks have seen some improvement in 2023. Still, there's no telling whether the bear is finally giving way to a bull market, or if further discounting will take hold. The index itself is still down by double-digit percentages from its all-time high. 

Turbulent market or not, if you have $1,000 that isn't needed to pay monthly bills, bolster an emergency fund, or pay off credit card debt, there are plenty of superior companies begging to be invested in. Here are two to consider.

Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), is an artificial intelligence-based lending platform that partners with financial institutions to provide consumer loans using non-traditional creditworthiness assessment. The company isn't getting the praise from investors that it did in prior years, largely because the overall lending environment is constrained, with loan volume broadly depressed in the current economy. It's also being dinged for keeping a higher-than-usual number of loans on its balance sheet. Investors are shying away from the stock over short-term losses, which could be shortsighted.

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Source Fool.com