8 Dow Jones Stocks Were Up Double Digits In The First Half Of 2023. Here's The List And What's Ahead.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up in the first six months of 2023, a rebound from a negative return in 2022. Through the first six months, 15 stocks of the 30 stocks that make up the composite index are up and 15 are down.

Here’s a look at the biggest gainers in the first half of 2023.

What Happened: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was created in 1896 by Charles Dow and is one of the oldest and most followed equity indexes for overall stock market health.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of 30 stocks on a price-weighted basis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA, which tracks the index, is one of the most invested and followed ETFs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF is up 3.9% through the first six months of 2023. The positive return comes after the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.5% in 2022.

Shares of the ETF are trading near 52-week highs to end the first half of 2023. The new yearly highs come as several of the stocks in the index were up over 20% halfway through the year.

Here were the top performing stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the first half of 2023, based on closing prices June 29:

Salesforce Inc CRM: +58.7%

Apple Inc AAPL: +46.3%

Microsoft Corporation MSFT: +39.7%

Intel Corp INTC: +24.5%

American Express Company AXP: +16.5%

Visa Inc V: +12.8%

McDonald’s Corporation MCD: +11.7%

Boeing Co BA: +11.2%

Related Link: Nasdaq 100 Marks Second Best 6-Month Performance In History 

What’s Next: With the Dow Jones trading up around 4% and seeing half of its stocks up and half down, the index will need some of the laggards to turn positive, the winners to continue running or a combination of both.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has not posted two straight years of declines since 2001 and 2002.

The return of the index in the first half of 2023 trails the S&P 500, as tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY, which is up 16.5% year-to-date.

Salesforce CRM ends the year as the top performing stock in the index, which comes after first-quarter financial results showed strength. The company beat revenue and earnings per share estimates in the first quarter. Salesforce also highlighted its generative AI efforts across its portfolio of brands and services.

Guidance from the company also came in higher than analysts’ estimates for the second quarter.

Despite being up nearly 50% in the first half of 2023 and hitting a market capitalization of $3 trillion Friday, analysts see the gains for Apple AAPL continuing in the second half of the year.

Neuberger Berman analyst Daniel Flax named Apple a top pick during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“They do face choppy demand in some of the markets, and I think that remains a challenge, but I think the bigger story is really the empowerment of the developers and the broader ecosystem, which remains vibrant,” Flax said.

The analyst said investors will likely see that Apple is executing its product cycles and has improving growth coming.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives has been bullish on Apple for some time and sees the stock outperforming going forward.

“In our opinion the Street has severely underestimated the massive installed base upgrade opportunity around iPhone 14 and now a mini super cycle iPhone 15,” Ives said.

Ives predicts Apple will hit a market capitalization of $3.5 trillion and a bull case of a $4-trillion valuation by fiscal year 2025.

Another stock to watch in the second half could be fast-food giant McDonald’s MCD. The stock is up around 12% in 2023 and has been setting new all-time highs along the way.

McDonald’s reported first quarter financial results that came in ahead of Street estimates. With the company seen as an indicator of how consumers are doing, it could be an important name to watch in the second half of 2023.

Read Next: 10 Highest Yielding Dow Jones Stocks 

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