Sherwood News

The last time the S&P 500 dropped more than 2% was 512 days ago

US stocks have climbed steadily this year, up 19% so far

7/17/24 5:27AM

Up 20 in ‘24?

The American stock market continues to climb higher, with the S&P 500 Index now just one more little uptick away from a 20% rise for 2024 — a surge that’s been about as smooth as it can be.

The chart below shows every individual day on the US stock market since 2020: so far this year, the flagship American index has only moved more than 2% in either direction once, when it gained 2.1% back in February.

Indeed, the last time the index fell 2% (a common occurrence during the more volatile days of 2020 and 2022) was all the way back in early 2023. That was 512 days, or 351 trading sessions, ago.

Small but mighty

In recent days, the AI trade — which powered much of the gains earlier this year — has given way to a new sentiment, as investors have rewarded smaller stocks. As Luke Kawa wrote yesterday “the Russell 2000 Index gained a whopping 3.5%, its fifth straight gain of 1% or more… making it the largest five-day outperformance of small caps versus the S&P 500 on record”.

Ironically, tech stocks have been the laggards of the last few days. But, everything’s relative: technology is still the best performing sector of the year so far (+25% in 2024).

541%

Matt Phillips3h

A 541% gain for Japanese chipmaker Kioxia makes it the “world’s best performing stock” this year.

That’s according to Bloomberg, which said Kioxia is the top performer in the MSCI World Index, a widely used benchmark for large and midcap stocks in developed markets.

Like domestic highfliers Micron and Sandisk, Kioxia specializes in making NAND flash memory chips, which are crucial to long-term permanent storage of digital data.

Massive amounts of storage are needed for the repositories of images, videos, and text files, to name a few formats, which AI uses to generate responses for users. As a result, the AI investment boom has sent prices for NAND flash up sharply, along with the stock prices of companies that make it.

Luke Kawa5h

Opendoor has erased all the gains made since September leadership changes as enthusiasm premium fizzles

If you bought Opendoor Technologies when the online real estate company revealed that Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian was coming in to serve as CEO, with cofounders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu joining the board of directors, you are underwater on that purchase.

Shares closed at $5.83 on Monday, below where they ended on September 10 ($5.86) before these management changes were announced after the close. That revelation sparked the biggest one-day gain in Opendoor’s history, with the stock up nearly 80% the next session to hit its highest level since 2022.

Of course, it’s still early days. These new leaders haven’t even reported results for a full quarter in which they’ve been at the helm.

But in looking at the factors that buoyed Opendoor the stock, it seems clear that the enthusiasm (and speculative appetite) that was omnipresent from mid-July through September has petered out. While some of this may be a function of the typically slowed holiday season, trading volumes have dipped to an average of about 62 million over the past 21 sessions, a level not seen since May. Similarly, over the past 21 sessions, call volumes are running at their lowest level since July.

Max Knoblauch5h

Nio climbs as China announces extension of its trade-in subsidy to boost EV buying

China’s trade-in subsidies intended to boost EV and low-emission vehicle purchases will be extended into 2026, according to a notice by Chinese officials on Tuesday. Shares of Chinese EV maker Nio climbed more than 6% on Tuesday morning.

Prior to the notice, China had signaled it would be pulling the plug on many subsidies for its maturing EV sector.

The extended trade-in subsidies will provide consumers up to $2,850 to scrap their older vehicles and purchase a qualifying new energy vehicle. The EV stimulus plan is part of a broader $8.94 billion program intended to boost the purchase of new consumer goods including refrigerators, smartphones, and washing machines.

Chinese EV Stocks Rise on Trade-In Subsidy Extension to 2026 | EV

Off the charts

Rani Molla, Jon Keegan5h

The flagship Apple Store, "The Cube", on 5th Avenue.

One of Dan Ives’ top 5 AI stocks for 2026 is Apple, despite its “invisible AI strategy”

Right now, investors like Apple because its AI strategy is different from other megacap tech companies.