These are the best-performing stocks in the 2023 bull market — and the worst

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The S&P 500 has risen 14.5% this year to 4,396.44, but we’re actually in a bull market, with a 23% gain from the 2022 closing low of 3,577.03 on Oct. 12. (One definition of a bull market is a 20% price increase for a benchmark index.)

Technology stocks have dominated, as you will see below where we summarize the best and worst performers of the first half of 2023.

First, take a look at the S&P 500’s price chart from the end of 2021 through Thursday:

All price changes in this article exclude dividends. We still have a way to go to get back to where the S&P 500
SPX
was before it fell 19% in 2021. The benchmark index is down 8% from then.

Here’s how the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 and four broad indexes have performed during the first half of 2023, with changes to their weighted forward price-to-earnings ratios:

S&P 500 sector or index

2023 price change

2022 price change

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Information Technology

39.5%

-28.9%

27.0

20.0

28.2

Communication Services

34.2%

-40.4%

17.2

14.4

21.0

Consumer Discretionary

30.5%

-37.6%

27.5

21.5

34.2

Industrials

8.3%

-7.1%

18.6

18.4

21.3

Materials

5.6%

-14.1%

17.0

15.7

16.6

Real Estate

1.3%

-28.4%

16.8

16.9

24.7

Consumer Staples

-1.0%

-3.2%

19.9

20.6

21.4

Financials

-2.4%

-12.4%

12.9

12.9

16.1

Healthcare

-3.4%

-3.6%

17.1

17.7

17.2

Energy

-7.8%

59.0%

10.5

9.8

11.1

Utilities

-8.3%

-1.4%

16.8

18.8

20.4

S&P 500

14.5%

-19.4%

18.9

16.8

21.5

Dow Jones Industrial Average

2.9%

-8.8%

17.0

16.6

18.9

Nasdaq Composite Index

29.9%

-33.1%

27.5

22.6

32.0

Nasdaq-100 Index

36.6%

-33.0%

26.8

20.9

30.3

Source: FactSet

Among the S&P 500, 58% of stocks have risen this year.

Information technology has been the strongest performer among the S&P 500 sectors this year, but it is important to note that two important tech players, Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL

GOOG
and Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
are placed in the communications-services sector by S&P, while Amazon.com Inc. is the largest company by market capitalization in the consumer-discretionary sector.

The S&P 500 is weighted by market cap, which means five companies (including two common share classes for Alphabet) make up nearly 24% of the $415 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY,
which tracks the benchmark index.

Here’s how shares of these five companies have performed this year:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31

Market cap ($bil)

% of SPY

Apple Inc.

AAPL 46%

-27%

7%

29.4

20.5

$2,982

7.7%

Microsoft Corp.

MSFT 40%

-29%

0%

30.4

23.1

$2,491

6.8%

Amazon.com Inc.

AMZN 52%

-50%

-23%

60.8

46.7

$1,312

3.1%

Nvidia Corp.

NVDA 179%

-50%

39%

47.1

34.4

$1,008

2.7%

Alphabet Inc. Class A

GOOGL 35%

-39%

-18%

20.2

16.9

$708

1.9%

Alphabet Inc. Class C

GOOG 35%

-39%

-17%

20.4

17.0

$705

1.7%

Source: FactSet

Click on the ticker symbols for more about each company, ETF or index.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Here is a chart showing milestones over the past decade as Apple Inc.
AAPL
has moved close to a market value of $3 trillion.

With more investors growing aware of how concentrated the S&P 500 has become, there has been a significant inflow of money into an equal-weighted index strategy over recent weeks.

Best and worst performers in the broad indexes

Here are the top 10 performers among the S&P 500 during the first half of 2023:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Nvidia Corp.

NVDA 179%

-50%

39%

47.1

34.4

58.0

Meta Platforms Inc. Class A

META 134%

-64%

-16%

21.1

14.7

23.5

Carnival Corp.

CCL 113%

-60%

-15%

34.6

41.3

N/A

Tesla Inc.

TSLA 109%

-65%

-27%

62.7

22.3

120.3

Royal Caribbean Group

RCL 105%

-36%

32%

17.3

14.9

232.4

Palo Alto Networks Inc.

PANW 82%

-25%

37%

51.3

38.0

70.1

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

AMD 72%

-55%

-23%

31.5

17.7

43.1

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.

NCLH 71%

-41%

1%

18.0

11.3

N/A

PulteGroup Inc.

PHM 70%

-20%

35%

8.3

6.3

6.2

Align Technology Inc.

ALGN 62%

-68%

-48%

37.5

27.2

48.7

Source: FactSet

And here are this year’s worst performers among the S&P 500:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Advance Auto Parts Inc.

AAP -54%

-39%

-72%

10.3

11.1

18.3

KeyCorp

KEY -46%

-25%

-60%

6.2

7.5

11.3

Zions BanCorp. N.A.

ZION -45%

-22%

-57%

5.8

7.3

13.6

Enphase Energy Inc.

ENPH -40%

45%

-13%

24.5

48.8

60.1

Comerica Incorporated

CMA -36%

-23%

-51%

5.7

6.6

14.8

Citizens Financial Group Inc.

CFG -34%

-17%

-45%

6.2

7.7

11.7

Dollar General Corp.

DG -32%

4%

-29%

16.0

20.2

21.2

Moderna Inc.

MRNA -32%

-29%

-52%

N/A

38.7

9.3

Newell Brands Inc

NWL -31%

-40%

-59%

8.2

9.1

11.6

EPAM Systems Inc.

EPAM -31%

-51%

-66%

21.3

26.3

59.7

Source: FactSet

For a heavier technology concentration, investors can look to the Nasdaq-100 Index
NDX,
which is tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust
QQQ
and holds shares of the largest 100 nonfinancial companies in the full Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
by market cap.

Here are this year’s best 10 performers among the Nasdaq-100:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Nvidia Corp.

NVDA 179%

-50%

39%

47.1

34.4

58.0

Meta Platforms Inc. Class A

META 134%

-64%

-16%

21.1

14.7

23.5

Tesla Inc.

TSLA 109%

-65%

-27%

62.7

22.3

120.3

Palo Alto Networks Inc.

PANW 82%

-25%

37%

51.3

38.0

70.1

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

AMD 72%

-55%

-23%

31.5

17.7

43.1

Align Technology Inc.

ALGN 62%

-68%

-48%

37.5

27.2

48.7

Marvell Technology Inc.

MRVL 58%

-58%

-33%

31.4

17.9

40.6

Broadcom Inc.

AVGO 54%

-16%

30%

19.5

13.6

19.8

Fortinet Inc.

FTNT 54%

-32%

4%

47.1

35.0

78.0

Lam Research Corp.

LRCX 52%

-42%

-11%

25.1

13.5

20.2

Source: FactSet

And here at the 10 components of the Nasdaq-100 showing the largest declines this year:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Enphase Energy Inc.

ENPH -40%

45%

-13%

24.5

48.8

60.1

Moderna Inc.

MRNA -32%

-29%

-52%

#N/A

38.7

9.3

Sirius XM Holdings Inc.

SIRI -26%

-8%

-32%

14.1

18.2

19.1

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

WBA -24%

-28%

-46%

6.9

8.1

10.4

Amgen Inc.

AMGN -16%

17%

-2%

11.8

14.2

12.5

PDD Holdings Inc. ADR Class A

PDD -16%

40%

18%

14.6

19.4

59.3

Kraft Heinz Co.

KHC -14%

13%

-2%

11.8

14.8

13.6

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.

KDP -14%

-3%

-17%

16.6

19.7

21.7

Xcel Energy Inc.

XEL -13%

4%

-9%

17.5

20.8

21.3

American Electric Power Co. Inc.

AEP -12%

7%

-6%

15.3

17.9

17.9

Source: FactSet

The Nasdaq-100 on Thursday was on pace to notch its best-ever first half to a calendar year.

And now for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
; Here’s how all 30 of its components have performed during the first half of 2023:

Company

Ticker

2023 price change

2022 price change

Price change since end of 2021

Forward P/E

Forward P/E as of Dec. 30

Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021

Salesforce Inc.

CRM 59%

-48%

-17%

26.1

23.8

53.5

Apple Inc.

AAPL 46%

-27%

7%

29.4

20.5

30.2

Microsoft Corp.

MSFT 40%

-29%

0%

30.4

23.1

34.0

Intel Corp.

INTC 25%

-49%

-36%

31.1

14.6

13.9

American Express Co.

AXP 16%

-10%

5%

14.6

13.7

16.9

Visa Inc. Class A

V 13%

-4%

8%

24.7

24.1

29.4

McDonald’s Corp.

MCD 12%

-2%

10%

25.3

25.1

26.4

Boeing Co.

BA 11%

-5%

5%

100.1

53.7

42.7

Walmart Inc.

WMT 9%

-2%

7%

23.7

21.7

21.6

Cisco Systems Inc.

CSCO 7%

-25%

-19%

12.7

13.0

18.0

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPM 7%

-15%

-9%

10.1

10.4

13.1

Dow Inc.

DOW 6%

-11%

-6%

14.0

11.5

8.9

Walt Disney Co.

DIS 2%

-44%

-43%

18.2

19.5

34.2

Merck & Co. Inc.

MRK 2%

45%

48%

14.7

14.8

10.6

Caterpillar Inc.

CAT 2%

16%

18%

13.4

15.7

16.7

Procter & Gamble Co.

PG -1%

-7%

-9%

23.4

25.2

26.6

Home Depot Inc.

HD -3%

-24%

-26%

20.0

18.7

25.7

Nike Inc. Class B

NKE -3%

-30%

-32%

29.7

32.6

38.3

Honeywell International Inc.

HON -4%

3%

-1%

21.5

23.3

23.2

International Business Machines Corp.

IBM -5%

5%

0%

13.8

14.7

12.4

Coca-Cola Co.

KO -6%

7%

1%

22.2

25.2

24.3

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

GS -6%

-10%

-16%

9.6

9.2

9.4

Verizon Communications Inc.

VZ -6%

-24%

-29%

7.9

7.9

9.6

Johnson & Johnson

JNJ -7%

3%

-4%

15.2

17.0

16.5

Travelers Cos. Inc.

TRV -9%

20%

9%

10.8

12.8

12.5

UnitedHealth Group Inc.

UNH -10%

6%

-5%

18.0

21.3

23.2

Chevron Corp.

CVX -13%

53%

33%

11.1

10.9

12.4

Amgen Inc.

AMGN -16%

17%

-2%

11.8

14.2

12.5

3M Co.

MMM -17%

-32%

-44%

10.9

11.5

17.1

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

WBA -24%

-28%

-46%

6.9

8.1

10.4

Source: FactSet

Read on:

Why the ‘easy money’ has been made in the stock-market rally — and what comes next

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Read the full article here

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