WBD - S&P 500 Ends First Half Shy Of All-Time Highs. Here Are The Leaders And Laggards — And 5 Stocks That Could Outperform In Next 6 Months | Benzinga
The stock market is up solidly this year, thanks to expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve amid easing inflationary pressure, strong corporate earnings and optimism over the potential of artificial intelligence technology’s potential.
Building On Gains: The S&P 500 Index, a measure of broader market performance, has gained a robust 14.48% so far this year, and it is up 3.92% for the second quarter. The index last hit a record closing high (5,487.03) on June 18, and breached the 5,500 mark intraday on June 20. Since then, the broader gauge has been going about a consolidation move.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index, ended Friday’s session down 0.39% at $544.22, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Analysts are optimistic about further gains in the second half of the year. Following the S&P 500’s record run, most have raised their year-end targets. Evercore ISI now has the highest estimate, predicting the index will end the year at 6,000.
Top Heaviness A Concern? Notwithstanding the equity market’s extended run, investors and analysts alike are concerned about the concentration of gains among a select few stocks. This is evident from the relative underperformance of the S&P EQUAL WEIGHT INDEX, in which the index components are accorded uniform weighting, versus the market cap-weighted S&P 500 Index.