US markets hit the highest levels of 2009 enforcing a summer rally, and turned in the best July since 1989 for the Dow, and 1997 for the S&P and Nasdaq. Additionally, July was the best monthly performance for the Dow since October, 2002, and April, 2009 for the S&P and Nasdaq. All the major US indexes were slightly positive for the week, and up almost 7.5% or greater for this month. On Friday, the markets were mixed with the Dow & S&P eking out slightly positive gains for the day.
- The S&P and Nasdaq turned in positive monthly gains for the 5th consecutive month
- Of the 337 S&P 500 companies that have reported Q2 earnings, 74% beat, 9% were in-line, and 17% missed
- The blended earnings growth rate including actuals and estimates for companies in the S&P who have not reported rose to -29.5% from -31.7% at the start of the quarter
- Since March 9th lows, the S&P is up 45.96%, the Dow is up 40.09%, and the Nasdaq is up 55.96%
- Month-to-date, the Russell leads the pack up about 9.5% in July, followed by the Dow up about 8.6% and the Nasdaq up 8.54%
- Year-to-date, all the major indexes are once again positive led by the the Nasdaq 100 up over 32%, the Nasdaq Composite up almost 26%, the Russell 2000 up almost 11.5%, the S&P up over 9% YTD and the Dow up 4.5%
Index Impact:
Bank of America (BAC) had the most positive impact on the Dow & S&P, up over 18% for the week
*MTD, Caterpillar (CAT) is the top Dow performer by % gain, up over 33% MTD
*YTD, American Express (AXP) continues to be the top Dow performer by % gain, up 52.7% YTD
*18 Dow components are positive YTD: AXP, IBM, CSCO, INTC, JPM, MMM, DD, MSFT, HPQ, HD, DIS, KO, KFT, BAC, AA, JNJ, UTX, BA
*MTD, the top S&P performer by % gain is Gannett (GCI) up over 96% for the month
*YTD, the top S&P performer by % gain is XL Capital (XL) up over 280.5% YTD
-Exxon (XOM) had the most negative impact on the Dow & the S&P, down almost 3% for the week
*MTD, McDonald's (MCD) is the worst Dow performer by % loss, down over 4% for the month
*YTD, General Electric (GE) is the worst Dow performer by % loss, down over 17% YTD
*MTD and YTD, AIG (AIG) is the worst S&P performer by % loss down over 58% YTD and over 43% MTD
Apple (AAPL) had the most positive impact on the NASDAQ 100, up over 2% for the week
*MTD, the top NASDAQ 100 performer by % gain is Wynn Resorts (WYNN), up almost 45% MTD
*YTD, the top NASDAQ 100 performer by % gain is Seagate (STX), up almost 172% YTD
Yahoo (YHOO) had the most negative impact on the NASDAQ 100, down over 18% for the week
*MTD, the worst NASDAQ 100 performer by % loss is Akamai (AKAM), down over 14% for the month
*YTD, the worst NASDAQ 100 performer by % loss is FLIR Systems (FLIR) down almost 30% YTD
Sector Impact: Ten out of ten S&P sectors were positive for the month led by Materials, up over 13% in July. The Telecomms sector was the least positive for the month, up 3.6%.
- Materials were helped by Dow Chemical (DOW) up 31.2% for the month
- Telecomms were hurt by Sprint Nextel (S) down over 16.8% for the month
- Year-to-date, eight out of ten sectors are now positive led by Tech, up almost 35.4%
