Believers in billionaire Elon Musk helped fuel a 730% equity rise in Tesla Inc.
Photographer: Angel Garcia / Bloomberg
Photographer: Angel Garcia / Bloomberg
In a historic year that marked a rapid plunge in the bear market area and a rapid recovery in the bull zone, high-flying technology stocks and electric vehicles pioneered Tesla Inc. were striking transactions.
The S&P 500 Index went from peak to low to peak inward 175 days as investors initially shunned most stocks in response to the Covid-19 lockdown and fears of a protracted recession, but later accumulated in the beneficiaries who stayed home. Since the pandemic-induced low, the benchmark is up 68%, breaking old records and adding about $ 14 trillion in value.
Read more: Stock Pickers’ Faang Addiction hits workers hard
Here’s a rundown of some of this year’s standout movers:
Tech Titans
Large-cap technology stocks – led by Apple inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. – has spurred major US stock indices to hit record highs in 2020, taking advantage of online shopping and a broader shift to the digital world.
A boom in ecommerce spending pushed Amazon up 76%, while Apple became the first-ever $ 2 trillion company, amid strong demand for its iPhone 12 models and optimism about its self-driving car efforts. Consumers stuck at home spent more time streaming television shows and movies, triggering a rally in Netflix stock.
EV boom
Tesla tower
Tesla’s market cap dominates other automakers
Source: Bloomberg
Believers in billionaire Elon Musk helped fuel a 743% rise in shares in Tesla Inc., pushing the company’s market value to a staggering $ 669 billion. Investor enthusiasm for the addition of the electric vehicle manufacturer to the S&P 500 and the prospect of higher growth for the industry as more consumers and policymakers embrace clean energy have also contributed to this year’s meteoric rise:
Potato chips
The pandemic increased demand for semiconductors, leading to a 122% rise in the shares of Nvidia Corp., the maker of graphics processors used in everything from gaming to data center servers and artificial intelligence. That’s more than double the advance for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Nvidia’s gaming business, which Morgan Stanley analysts have called “exceptional,” is expected to boost momentum in 2021 after quarterly sales crushed Wall Street expectations throughout the year.
E-commerce
The pressure to make purchases from the comfort of the bank generated profit PayPal Holdings Inc. and its digital payment partners. Bulls expects stocks to continue to rally after a record year in which consumer demand continues to shift towards online and away from physical retail.
Courier stocks
The increase in online shopping and rush to deploy vaccines across the country helped fuel delivery services like businesses FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. FedEx, which is up 72%, reported quarterly sales surpassing expectations four consecutive times, helping to push its market value above $ 79 billion earlier this month. Meanwhile, UPS managed to cut delivery times by one day to 10% of its land parcels. The stock is up 44% this year.
Abandoned
Still, about 39% of companies listed on the S&P 500 are declining this year as economic growth plummeted and the pandemic rocked the business, education, and leisure plans of millions of people who stayed at home.
Cruise liners Carnival Corp. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. were among the biggest losers on the S&P 500, losing nearly 60% of their stock prices while the aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. was the worst share of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The woes for airlines have been marked by the loss of nearly $ 10 billion in market value United Airlines Holdings Inc.
Biggest Losers
Cruise operators, airlines and energy stocks performed the worst in 2020
Source: Bloomberg
The pandemic also affected the energy sector. With nowhere to go and several industries operating at reduced capacity, the demand for oil dropped, causing the shares of oil and gas producers and refineries to collapse. The S&P 500 Energy Index fell 37%, the worst year in at least three decades.
– With assistance from Divya Balji, Kristine Owram and Jeran Wittenstein
(Updates with closing prices everywhere.)