You can learn a lot about the nature of a stock market rally simply by observing which stocks are leading the market. Below I present to you the list of the 10 best performing S&P 500 stocks since the Federal Reserve officially announced the third round of its quantitative easing program in September of 2012. It is true that the last leg of this bull market started earlier, but since QE3 officially started, the gains have been relentless and the corrections shallow.
COMPANY | SYMBOL | RETURN SINCE 9/13/12 |
NETFLIX INC | NFLX | 628.8 |
MICRON TECH | MU | 362.9 |
DELTA AIR | DAL | 299.8 |
KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIN | GMCR | 282.1 |
FACEBOOK INC-A | FB | 250.7 |
SOUTHWEST AIR | LUV | 214.7 |
GILEAD SCIENCES | GILD | 203.9 |
FIRST SOLAR INC | FSLR | 179.2 |
TRIPADVISOR INC | TRIP | 161.0 |
ACTAVIS PLC | ACT | 158.5 |
This is no retirement portfolio. Half of these businesses might not be around in 10 years. Your top performer is Netflix up an impressive 628%. Facebook and TripAdvisor also made the top ten. As did two airline stocks (an industry with a reputation for serial defaults) and two bio-techs.
What do the S&P 500’s top performers say about this rally? Our takeaway is that it is a speculative blow-off fueled primarily by liquidity.