Below is a list of the 25 best performing stocks in the S&P 500 so far in 2019.  Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) tops the list with a gain of more than 100%.  While no other S&P 500 stocks have yet to double this year, another semi name, Lam Research (LRCX) has come close with a gain of 99%.  Xerox (XRX), MarketAxess (MKTX), and Target (TGT) have also all risen more than 90%.

Apple (AAPL) is the 19th best performing stock in the list above.  But because of its trillion+ dollar market cap, Apple’s (AAPL) 69% gain has a much bigger impact on the overall stock market than all of the other stocks that have seen a bigger price move this year.  In fact, of the S&P 500’s 25% price gain this year, Apple has accounted for 2.24 of those percentage points (or roughly 9%).

Instead of looking at simple year-to-date price change, below is a list of the stocks that investors should be most thankful for this year because of their contribution to the S&P’s gains.  Right behind Apple (AAPL) in first is the other trillion+ dollar company — Microsoft (MSFT) — which has accounted for 1.7 percentage points of the S&P’s 25% gain.  After AAPL and MSFT are Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN).  Together these five mega-caps account for 25% of the S&P’s move higher this year.  While this group of companies has been vilified in 2019 for a number of things, they’re certainly still delivering for the stock market in a big way.  See Bespoke’s most actionable investment ideas with a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium.