5 Top Performing S&P 500 Stocks Of November
Zacks Investment Research | Nov 30, 2016 10:05PM ET
President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a raft of fiscal-stimulus measures, which has pushed the S&P 500 to almost an all-time high in November. OPEC’s decision to cut oil production for the first time since 2008 also added to the euphoria, while holiday season sales gained ground.
Amid all these, solid economic data from consumer confidence level, housing starts to GDP bolstered investors’ sentiment. Third quarter earnings results too came in good, which calls for investing in stocks that have not only outperformed the broader S&P 500 index, but are also poised to gain in the near term on solid fundamentals.
S&P 500 Trades Near All-Time High
U.S. stocks made big gains in November, with the S&P 500 scaling to almost an all-time high. The benchmark index advanced 72.66 points or 3.4% last month to settle at 2,198.81, driven by expectations of market-friendly policies from Trump. In fact, the broad-stock benchmark S&P 500 index has climbed 3.8% since the election.
Trump’s policies particularly had a positive impact on financial, healthcare and industrial companies. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLF), Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) and Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) gained 12.3%, 1.4% and 9.2%, respectively, during the month.
Giant investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) scored a 23% climb while J.P. Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up about 15.8%. On the healthcare front, Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) gained 4.2% and 1.4%, respectively, while industrial behemoth Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) advanced 14.5% in November.
Trump Rally
Investors turned to banks as regulatory burden is likely to ease under Trump presidency. One such change will be the raising of the minimum asset threshold for banking behemoths to $250 billion from $50 billion, which will lend more flexibility, boost valuations, strengthen consolidation and increase lending. Trump, in the meantime, views the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul as a harsh measure, especially, on smaller banks. Trump has also called for repealing parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which has for a considerable period of time limited operational flexibility (read more: Zacks Investment Research
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