New York
CNN Business
—
The Dow fell about 80 points by mid-afternoon on Monday, but is still up 14% this month, putting it on track for its best monthly gain since January 1976.
However, blue chips remain down nearly 10% this year. Meanwhile, the S&P500which was down about 0.6% on Monday, has fallen almost 20% in 2022. Nasdaqwhich was down nearly 1% on Monday, has plunged 30% this year.
Still, it’s only fitting that on Halloween, candy maker Hershey
(HSY) is trading at an all-time high and is up 25% this year. But overall, there haven’t been too many sweet kisses for investors this year: Despite a fierce rally so far in October, there are far more losers than winners on Wall Street in 2022.
Big tech, industrials and consumer discretionary stocks have been hit hard in 2022. Intel
(INTC)Nike
(of)Salesforce
(RCMP)Microsoft
(MSFT)3M
(MMM)Boeing
(BA)disney
(SAY)Walgreens
(WBA)Home Depot
(HD)Cisco
(CSCO) and Verizon
(VZ) are all down more than 25% in 2022. That’s almost half of Dow Jones stocks.
The technology is also crushed in the S&P 500. Facebook owner Metaplatforms has plunged over 70% this year and is now trading at its lowest level since January 2016. PayPal
(PYPL)chip giant Nvidia
(NVDA) and Netflix
(NFLX) also lost more than half of their value.
But there are other winners besides Hershey. Oil stocks and healthcare companies dominate the market, with Chevron
(CLC)Wed
(MRK) and Amgen
(AMGN) tops the list of Dow leaders.
Chevron is even trading near an all-time high. The same goes for rival (and former Dow component) Exxon Mobil.
(XOM). Eli Lilly, leader of big pharma
(THERE IS) and Cigna health insurance
(THIS) and Humana
(hum) are also at record highs.
It’s not just energy and health care stocks that are posting strong gains this year. Several consumer staple businesses — businesses that sell food and beverages — are also booming. McDonald’s
(MCD)Pepsi
(DYNAMISM) and General Mills cereals
(GIS) and post
(PUBLISH) recently hit record highs.
Also in the all-time club: defense contractors Lockheed Martin
(LMT) and Northrop Grumman
(NOC)Metlife insurers
(MEET) and Progressive
(RPG)Autozone auto parts retailers
(AVOID) and O’Reilly Automotive
(ORLY) and wireless giant T-Mobile
(TMUS).
There is a saying on Wall Street that there is always a bull market somewhere. This list of well-known brand stocks trading at record highs is further proof of that.
Yet the broader market is undeniably struggling this year due to inflation concerns and the fact that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates significantly in an attempt to beat the scourge of rising prices.
There are growing concerns that the Fed came too late to start fighting inflation and now risks sending the economy into a recession next year as it appears to be catching up with its string of hikes aggressive rates.