Election Day 2012 is now upon us, so below we highlight the performance of the S&P 500 and its ten sectors since Election Day 2008 four years ago. Â As shown, the S&P 500 is up 35.43% since the close on November 4th, 2008. Â Five sectors have outperformed the index and five have underperformed. Â Consumer Discretionary has been by far the best performing sector since the last Presidential election with a gain of 73.11%. Â Telecom, Industrials and Health Care are all up more than 40%, while Technology is just barely outperforming the S&P with a gain of 35.43%. Â Consumer Staples is just below the S&P with a gain of 35.07%, while Utilities, Energy and Materials are all up roughly 25%. Â The Financial sector has been the weakest since Election Day 2008 with a gain of just 13.97%.
The average stock currently in the S&P 500 is up 76% since Election Day 2008. Â Below are the 40 best and 40 worst performing current S&P 500 stocks since then. Â As shown, priceline.com (PCLN) is up by far the most with a 1,000+ percent gain. Â Whole Foods (WFM), Expedia (EXPE), AutoNation (AN) and Wyndham Worldwide (WYN) round out the top five. Â Apple (AAPL) ranks sixth with a gain of 427.88%.
Ironically, it's a solar stock that ranks dead last in terms of S&P 500 performance since November 4th, 2008. Â As shown below, First Solar (FSLR) is down 86.84%. Â Citigroup (C) ranks second to last with a decline of 74.52%, followed by Apollo Group (APOL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Bank of America (BAC).
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