A Whole Lot of Nothing at the Surface
The S&P 500 is still within 2% of its record closing high reached exactly two years ago today, but beneath the surface, there have been some big moves. The chart below shows a distribution of two-year returns for every S&P 500 stock that is currently in the index, and while there have been some big winners and losers over this period, the average component’s move has been just a modest decline of 0.54%. So while the S&P 500 is down 1.9% from its high, over that same period, the ‘average’ stock in the index is down even less. For all the talk over the last year about how narrow the market has been, over the last two years that hasn’t been the case.
In the tables below, we show the 25 best and worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 over the last two years. Starting with the winners, all of the stocks listed have rallied at least 63%, and there are another 14 stocks that are up over 50% that didn’t make the list. Perhaps what stands out most about the list of biggest winners is what stocks aren’t on it. As shown, only three Technology sector stocks (and no Communication Services sector stocks) made the list, and of those three, not even one has a market cap of more than $30 billion. The only mega-cap stock on the list is Eli Lilly (LLY), showing again how while mega-cap tech had a great 2023, on a ‘two-year stack,’ their performance has been unremarkable. While tech stocks weren’t well-represented on the list, Energy and Industrials filled the void with eight and six stocks, respectively.
Among the list of biggest losers over the last two years, 18 are down over 50% led lower by VF Corp (VFC) and Match Group (MTCH) which have both plummeted more than 70%. Both of these stocks now have market caps of less than $10 billion, and of the 25 names shown, only three (Paypal-PYPL, Estee Lauder-EL, and Pfizer-PFE) have market caps above $50 billion.
Daily Sector Snapshot — 1/3/24
Fixed Income Weekly — 1/3/24
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Bespoke Market Calendar — January 2024
Please click the image below to view our January 2024 market calendar. This calendar includes the S&P 500’s historical average percentage change and average intraday chart pattern for each trading day during the upcoming month. It also includes market holidays and options expiration dates plus the dates of key economic indicator releases. Click here to view Bespoke’s premium membership options.
Chart of the Day – 60/40 As Positively Correlated As Ever
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 1/3/24 – Blame Europe
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“There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.” – Martin Luther
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It’s not for another month, but it’s starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day as futures are once again pointing to a lower open on the day. If you’re looking for a scapegoat, the other side of the Atlantic may be a good place to start. The charts below show overnight market action combining intraday trading in Asian and European markets along with US futures. The chart on the left shows overnight trading from Monday night into Tuesday while the chart on the right shows trading overnight into this morning. In each case, the pattern has been the same. Up until Europe opened, there wasn’t much going on, and while stocks on the continent briefly rallied to start the day, sellers quickly came in and overwhelmed any positive sentiment.
This morning in the US, several catalysts could either break the trend or accelerate it. At 10 AM, we’ll get the December ISM Manufacturing report which is expected to come in below 50 for the fourteenth straight month and is the longest streak in over 20 years. Along with that report, the release of JOLTS for November is expected to increase modestly after last month’s much weaker-than-expected report. Besides those two reports, we’ll get the FOMC minutes at 2 PM.
Yesterday may not have been an especially positive start to a year, but it probably wasn’t as bad as the headline declines in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq would suggest. While the Nasdaq’s 1.63% decline was the fourth worst start to a year for the index on record, and the S&P 500’s 0.57% decline was steep in its own right, overall breadth on the S&P 500 was slightly positive (+19), and the equal-weighted S&P 500 was barely down on the day (-0.03%).
At the sector level, things weren’t so bad either. You probably wouldn’t believe it, but four sectors rallied over 1% and two other sectors were up on the day. Outside of Technology (-2.62%) and Industrials (-1.01%), no other sector ETF declined more than 1% on the day.
Yesterday’s best-performing sector was Health Care as the sector ETF rallied 1.76%. While the sector was a big laggard in 2023, it appears to be making up for lost time in the new year as the stock convincingly broke out above the upper end of its 2023 trading range.
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The Closer – Wrong Way, Stumbling Out the Gate, Cash Hoarding – 1/2/24
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we start tonight with a look at the dollar’s surge and Nasdaq’s sharp drop to start the new year (page 1). Switching to the day’s macro data, we then review the latest PMI readings and construction spending figures (page 2). We follow up with an update on cash holdings (page 3) before closing with a rundown of the latest positioning data (pages 4-7).
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