But in the past month of turbulence, the "seven giants" seem to have lost their leading position in the market.
According to the Zhitong Finance APP, the US stock market has rebounded strongly after a sluggish summer, but in the past month of turbulence, the "seven giants" seem to have lost their leading position in the market.
Since the beginning of the third quarter, the stock performance of these mega-cap companies has lagged behind the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 index. According to Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO, this means that these giant stocks may underperform other stocks in the S&P 500 index for the first time in a quarter in nearly two years.
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Belski stated that the S&P 500 index has been able to approach within 1% of its historical high without the leadership of tech stocks or mega-cap companies, which should enhance investors' confidence in the sustainability of this rebound.
For over a year, market skeptics have been concerned that the stock market is too concentrated in a few mega-cap stocks with inflated valuations. As the gap between market winners and losers has recently become more extreme, many Wall Street strategists have advised investors to shift funds to cheaper sectors in the market, such as value stocks, cyclical stocks, and small-cap stocks.
However, this does not mean that the "seven giants" cannot regain their lead position in the six weeks remaining before the end of this quarter.
In fact, as the stock market rebounded in the past two weeks, the gains of technology stocks have expanded. This week, the technology-dominated Nasdaq Composite Index exited the correction range at a record speed.
According to FactSet data, since the market rebounded on August 7, the stock price of the artificial intelligence leader Nvidia (NVDA.US) has led the index, rising nearly 30% so far.
It will take some time for technology stocks to return to the highs of July. Shortly after the Nasdaq Composite Index reached its all-time high closing price on July 10, investors suddenly sold off large-cap technology stocks and turned to small-cap stocks and other previously unpopular sectors in the market. As of Wednesday, the Nasdaq index was still about four percentage points away from its historical high.
Even if the 'Big Seven' can make a comeback, more and more industries have outperformed the S&P 500 index in recent performance, as investors increasingly bet on stocks that are expected to benefit from the Fed's interest rate cuts.
According to FactSet data, defensive stocks such as utilities, healthcare, and consumer staples have seen a broad rebound in August along with cyclical industries like finance. BMO found that since the beginning of the third quarter, the performance of nearly 300 stocks in the S&P 500 index has exceeded the index, the most in nearly two years.
Long-time bulls, including Ryan Detrick of Carson Group, have long believed that in order for the S&P 500 index to continue hitting new highs, the number of stocks driving its rise needs to expand. Detrick pointed out in an interview on Tuesday that this situation seems to finally be happening. 'Now the stock market is no longer solely reliant on technology stocks. It's a good sign for investors to see leadership in these more cyclical sectors.'