Broad stock market indexes like the S&P 500 hit all-time highs in the first half of 2024.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also hit all-time highs, but saw a smaller return in the first half of the year. Here's a look at the biggest gainers and laggards in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
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 hit all-time highs of more than 40,000 in May 2024.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of 30 stocks on a price-weighted basis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA), which tracks the index, is one of the most invested and followed ETFs.
In the first half of 2024, 18 of the Dow Jones components stocks were up, with 12 stocks declining for the first half of the year.
The top five gainers for the first half of 2024 were:
- Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT): +28.9%
- Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN): +27.2%
- American Express Company (NYSE:AXP): +23.6%
- Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT): +18.9%
- JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM): +18.9%
The top five losers for the full year were:
- Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC): -38.4%
- Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE): -30.6%
- Boeing Co (NYSE:BA): -30.2%
- McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD): -14.1%
- Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): -6.8%
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Why It's Important: Ten of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks were up double-digit percentage in the first half of the year.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK), Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) were also each up double digits to start the year.
Microsoft ended 2023 as the third-best-performing Dow Jones stock and is continuing 2024 where it left off.
Intel ranked as one of the top performers in 2023, but has fallen in 2024. The stock is mentioned by several experts as a potential stock to be removed to make way for semiconductor leader NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained a total of over 14% for 2023. The index is up 3.8% year-to-date in 2024.
While the gains are positive in both 2023 and the first half of 2024, the index is lagging behind other major stock market indexes like the S&P 500. The S&P 500 was up 24.2% in 2023 and is up 14.5% to start 2024.
The performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average has also been overshadowed by the performance of the Magnificent 7 stocks in 2023 and the first half of 2024.
The Mag 7 consists of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (NASDAQ:MAGS), which tracks the stocks, was up over 32% in the first half of 2024, outperforming both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other stock market indexes could be closely monitoring the 2024 presidential election, which could see the new year bring gains as in past years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 7.3% in 2020, 13.4% in 2016 and 7.3% in 2012, the three most recent presidential election years. The average return of the index is +5.4% over the past 16 presidential election years.
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