The S&P 500 is up nearly 7% year-to-date, but the average stock in the index is up just 5.70%.  This means the largest stocks in the cap-weighted index are outperforming the smallest names.  Even still, two-thirds of the stocks in the S&P are up year-to-date, while 35% of stocks are up more than 10%.  Seventy stocks are up more than 20%, while just 25 are up more than 30%.

Below is a list of the 30 best performing S&P 500 stocks year-to-date.  As shown, Vertex Pharma (VRTX) is up the most with a gain of 55%, followed by Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Arconic (ARNC), CSX and Lam Research (LRCX).  Wynn Resorts (WYNN) — a Bespoke Model Portfolio name — ranks 7th best with a gain of 40.8%, while Adobe (ADBE) — another Bespoke Model Portfolio name — ranks 18th with a gain of 31.7%.  Apple (AAPL) ranks just behind ADBE at 31.68%.  As the largest stock in the world with a market cap of just under $800 billion, Apple’s gain this year has been a huge contributor to the cap-weighted S&P 500.  Another mega-cap Tech name that’s up more than 30% YTD is Facebook (FB).  Coach (COH) may be the most surprising name on the list in the 29th spot given the pain that Retail stocks have gone through.  But remember, since Coach is a retailer that has its own brand, it’s not part of our Death By Amazon (DBA) index of retailers that rely mostly on third party brands.  That’s where the real pain is.

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You can find a number of Death By Amazon index members on the list of worst performing S&P 500 stocks year-to-date, however.  Remember, to be part of Bespoke’s DBA index, you have to be a retailer that relies mostly on third party brands.  See if you can spot a few of them on the list of 2017’s biggest S&P 500 losers:

After a pretty large uptick in positive sentiment last week, individual investors reined in their horns this week, even as the S&P 500 hit new all-time highs.  According to AAII’s weekly survey, bullish sentiment dropped from 38.07% down to 32.73% for the largest weekly decline since March 9th.  This week’s reading also extends the streak of sub-50% readings to a record 123 straight weeks.

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While bulls retreated, bears saw only a slight uptick this week as bearish sentiment increased from 29.95% up to 30.22% keeping it below the uptrend line that was broken to the downside last week.

With little uptick in bearish sentiment, all the bulls that were shaken out this week found themselves in the neutral camp as this measure increased to 37.05% from last week’s reading of just under 32%.  That’s the largest weekly increase since mid-March and the highest reading since before the election.  Perhaps it was this week’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey or just a general feeling of unease at record highs, but individual investors definitely took on a more cautious attitude in the last few days.

In addition to this week’s lower than expected print in jobless claims, continuing claims were even more impressive.  In this week’s report, continuing claims came in at 1.918 million, which was not only well below the consensus expectation of 1.980 million, but it was also the lowest weekly reading in this indicator of the current economic expansion.  In fact, the only other time since 1973 where continuing claims were lower was in the first week of November 1988.  Someday, both initial and continuing claims will start trending higher again, but until they do, it is a bullish sign for the market and economy.

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Jobless claims came in lower than expected this week, falling from 238K down to 236K and 9K below the consensus expectation for an increase to 245K.  Once again, after bouncing higher two weeks ago, jobless claims are moving back down to the lower end of their range and are within 10K of the multi-decade low of 227K.  This week’s print also marked the 114th straight week where claims have been below 300K.

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Looking at the four-week moving average, jobless claims ticked up slightly, rising from 243K up to 243.5K.  Despite the slight increase, the four-week moving average is still within 4K of its multi-decade low.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, claims ticked up slightly rising from 211.3K up to 215K.  For the current week of the year, that’s the lowest reading since 1973 and more than 115K below the average for the current week of the year dating back to 2000.  No matter what metric you use, jobless claims were positive this week.