This year’s stock market rally was led by a handful of technology stocks that have come to be known by Wall Street as the ‘Magnificent Seven’.
Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, NVIDIA, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla together are up around 75 percent since the beginning of the year. Americans holding them in their 401(k) savings accounts will have gotten a big boost as a result.
The 493 other companies in the S&P 500 – an index of America’s largest 500 companies – were up around 12 percent.
Overall, the S&P 500 was up almost 23 percent through December 18 – driven by those seven powerful technology companies. Many 401(k) accounts have at least some of the money invested in the benchmark index, and will have benefited from the rally over the year.
The spectacular growth of Magnificent Seven companies is widely attributed to the artificial intelligence craze this year and more recently the increased expectation that the Federal Reserve will begin reducing benchmark interest rates next year.
Nvdia, which manufactures computer chips, has enjoyed returns of nearly 250 percent this year and is the top performer in the S&P 500.
wonder which politicos have investments there … TIME TO GO RABBIT HOLE DIVING
h/t Coastie Patriot