Stocks notch second straight quarterly gain
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
After the horrific performance in 2022, the first quarter wasn't too shabby for investors.
The big picture: Stocks ended a volatile quarter solidly in the green, thanks to a healthy rally among tech companies.
- The S&P 500 rose 7% during the quarter, and the Nasdaq composite climbed nearly 17%.
- It was the second straight quarter in the green for the S&P.
State of play: This is a welcome change for investors after last year — the market's worst since 2008 — when stocks got slammed by rising interest rates.
This year: Some of that dynamic has reversed.
- Interest rates have fallen. The yield on the 10-year T-note, for example, dropped to about 3.5%, from 4% earlier in the year.
- And some of the tech stocks left for dead last year are seeing remarkable rebounds.
- For example, Facebook parent Meta soared 76% in the first quarter. Tesla climbed 68%. Chipmaker Nvidia is up an astounding 90% for the year, making it the S&P's big winner so far in 2023.
The other side: The biggest losers are the regional banks, led by First Republic, which is down nearly 90% so far this year. (Unless you count Silicon Valley Bank, an S&P 500 company that lost 100% of its equity value when it collapsed.)
The bottom line: Nobody knows if the bear market is over; the S&P 500 would have to hit new highs for that to happen — and it's still about 15% below that level.
- But two straight quarterly gains of 7% isn't a bad start.
