The Best Performing Sectors, Assets In The First Half Of 2018

It’s been a turbulent first half of 2018 for investors, with the return of stock market volatility and a stream of impactful geopolitical headlines. Now that the second half of the year has begun, here’s a look at which investing ideas have been working so far this year.

U.S. Stocks

The U.S. stock market has been solid in the first half of 2018, although stocks cooled following a big gain in the opening weeks of the year. The S&P 500 is now up just 1.4 percent year-to-date, but some stocks have done much better than others. Here are the five best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 year-to-date:

• Fossil Group Inc FOSL up 245.8 percent.
• ABIOMED, Inc. ABMD up 118.2 percent.
• Netflix, Inc. NFLX up 103.9 percent.
• Twitter, Inc. TWTR up 81.8 percent.
• Tripadvisor Inc TRIP up 61.6 percent.

Market Sectors

The market has been a mixed bag on a sector-by-sector level in 2018. Here are the SPDR sector ETFs that have been working this year:

• Consumer Discretionary SPDR (ETF) XLY up 10.7 percent.
• Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK up 8.6 percent.
• Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) XLE up 5 percent.
• Health Care SPDR (ETF) XLV up 0.9 percent.
• COMMUNICAT SVS SLCT SEC SPDR ETF XLC up zero percent.

Asset Classes

In terms of the best-performing asset classes of the year, stocks and oil have been pockets of strength in an otherwise weak market. Here’s a look at ETFs representing the best-performing asset classes in the first half of the year:

• United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) USO: up 25.4 percent.
• iShares S&P 500 SmallCap600 Growth (ETF) IJT: up 11.4 percent.
• PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) QQQ: up 10.6 percent.
• iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index (ETF) IJR: up 9.3 percent.
• iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF) IWM: up 7.6 percent.

For investors looking for a more in-depth look at what has been working (and not working) in the first half of 2018, the image below from Bespoke is a comprehensive breakdown of first-half asset performance.

Related Links:

A 2018 Midyear Update: The 10 Best-Performing S&P 500 Stocks

A 2018 Midyear Update: The 10 Worst-Performing S&P 500 Stocks