The Dow’s Big 6, Not the Tech Giants, Were July’s Stock-Market Stars

All three major indexes—the
Dow Jones Industrial Average,
the
Nasdaq Composite,
and the
S&P 500
— are ending July with gains. They have powered ahead in the first seven months of the year despite concerns about high inflation, rising interest rates, and a potential recession.

As of Monday afternoon, the tech-heavy
Nasdaq 100
had climbed 3.6% in July, marking its fifth straight month of gains. That is the longest monthly winning streak since August 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The index has surged 44% in 2023, and was on pace for its best performance through the first seven months of the year on record.

Investors have been buying up shares of tech stocks that were beaten down in 2022. Excitement surrounding the future of artificial intelligence and where it can take the companies has pushed their shares higher.

Gains in seven tech stocks, the so-called big seven, have helped give the S&P 500 a gain of 20% in 2023, and a 3.1% increase in July. They include
Apple
(ticker: AAPL),
Microsoft
(MSFT),
Nvidia
(NVDA),
Tesla
(TSLA),
Alphabet
(GOOGL),
Amazon.com
(AMZN), and
Meta Platforms
(META).

“Tech earnings and guidance continues to deliver at an impressive pace and the artificial intelligence narrative will continue to drive multiples,” Richard Saperstein, chief investment officer at Treasury Partners, wrote Friday.

“Long-term investors should stick with big tech which continues to deliver impressive earnings growth and cash flow. The adoption of AI will continue to enable elevated multiples in this sector,” Saperstein said.

The Dow, meanwhile, has gained 7.3% in 2023, which puts it on pace for its best performance through the first seven months of the year since 2021. The Dow has risen 3.4% in July alone.

Both figures are less then the Nasdaq’s gains. But even though this has been the year of the tech trade, the top six stocks in the Dow outperformed the big seven this month.

The top six stocks in the Dow for July were
Boeing
(BA), which was up 13% this month as of Monday afternoon;
3M
(MMM), which rose 11%;
Goldman Sachs
(GS), which increased 10%;
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM), which gained 8.6%; Intel (INTC), which climbed 7.8%; and
International Business Machines
(IBM), which was up 7%.

For July, Meta was up 11%,
Alphabet
surged 11%, 
Nvidia
jumped 10%, Amazon climbed 2.6%,
Tesla
gained 2.2%,
Apple
has risen 1.3%, and
Microsoft
declined 1.4%.

Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]