You already know about the Magnificent Seven stocks driving the S&P 500. But what about the Elite Eight?
Eight stocks in the S&P 500 — including of course Nvidia and Amazon.com but also Walmart — generated a staggering $6 trillion in market value this year, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSurge.
That's more than half the total $11.8 trillion gained by all the companies in the S&P 500 this year. In other words, if you just owned these eight giants, you captured most of the S&P 500's gains this year.
And these stocks keep storming higher — going into a typically bullish time of the year.
"Despite the turn in the calendar page, investors still have much to look forward to, according to history," said Sam Stovall, strategist at CFRA.
The S&P 500's Top Value Winner This Year: Nvidia
Any discussion of the year's top value creators would be incomplete without a mention of Nvidia.
The king of AI semiconductors saw its shares soar 195% this year. And when you're talking about a stock of this size, some major gains result.
Nvidia's market value jumped more than $2.3 trillion just this year — single-handedly accounting for 20% of the S&P 500's gain. That's more than any other S&P 500 company gained. It's also more than 497 stocks in the S&P 500 are individually worth in their entirety.
The stock carries a sky-high 96 RS Rating. And analysts see huge growth still coming. Profit is expected to jump nearly 300% this year and another 127% in 2025.
Telling you just what kind of a year it was, Amazon.com gained $753 billion in value — but was only the No. 2 contributor to the S&P 500. It accounted for 6.4% of the S&P 500's total gain.
Shares of Amazon gained more than 45% in 2024, giving them an RS Rating of 85. Analysts think profit will rise 77% this year and 21% in 2025.
The Surprise S&P 500 Contributor: Walmart
Not all big S&P 500 contributors this year are in the tech sector. Retailer Walmart is a surprising driver.
Shares of Walmart gained more than 81% this year. That added $342 billion in shareholder value — or roughly 3% of the S&P 500's total gain.
Talk about a winner. Shares carry an RS Rating of 91. And analysts think profit will rise by a double-digit percentage in both fiscal 2025 and 2026.
Looks like the Magnificent Seven is getting some company.
Top S&P 500 Value Gainers This Year
| Company | Ticker | Market value gained YTD (trillions) | % of total gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | NVDA | $2.3 | 20.0% |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | $0.8 | 6.4% |
| Apple | AAPL | $0.7 | 5.8% |
| Meta Platforms | META | $0.6 | 5.4% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | $0.5 | 4.3% |
| Tesla | TSLA | $0.4 | 3.4% |
| Alphabet | GOOGL | $0.4 | 3.2% |
| Walmart | WMT | $0.3 | 2.9% |
