The S&P 500 index has been faring well in 2019–up 17% year to date—and has successfully recovered from the sharp drop witnessed in December 2018, when the index dropped to its 10-year low due to uncertainty over the Fed's policy. Consumer, technology, financial services and energy sector companies make up the 10 stocks that have shown the greatest surge in stock prices this year with consumer and tech leading the way.
The best-performing sectors so far this year are significantly different from 2018. According to Lindsey Bell, an investment strategist at CFRA, 2018 was a “weak year and nine of the 11 sectors declined. The only two that showed gains were healthcare and utilities.” On the other hand, in the first half of 2019 “information technology continues to lead, up 23% on a year-to-date basis, you've got real estate doing really well up 20%, and then consumer discretionary up 18%.”
The top performing stocks this year so far are: