Apple and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft are the two biggest contributors to the S&P 500′s gains this year.
CNBC:
2019 is shaping up to be a historic year for the S&P 500, and the benchmark has two stocks to thank.
Apple and Microsoft, which surged 85% and 55% this year, respectively, together accounted for nearly 15% of the S&P 500′s advance in 2019, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Their influence to the cap-weighted index this year is greater than the next eight biggest contributors combined. Through Monday, the S&P 500 was up 28%.
The S&P 500′s 2019 gain is its best since 2013 and could be even more historic if stocks continue to gain on Tuesday. The benchmark is a percentage point away from having its best year since 1997.
MacDailyNews Take: A rising boat, or two, lifts all tides.
Blue state companies lead the way…..as usual
After Microsoft’s mobile initiative failed completely, I thought the company was done for considering Windows OS wasn’t seeing any growth. I sure was wrong. Luckily, Wall Street loves cloud businesses and overnight investors quickly adapted to Microsoft being a leader in the cloud business. However, Wall Street has a difficult time believing Apple can transition from being the iPhone Company to becoming a Services company. That’s somewhat strange how Microsoft has so many confident investors but Apple doesn’t. I guess it’s easier for investors to accept cloud businesses as the future because they’re being hyped so much as being unlimited growth markets.
I would have thought Apple could have built ARM servers for data centers as the A-series processor is such a powerhouse and Wall Street’s thinking that the cloud is the future for all corporations. There are many articles claiming how ARM servers are going to take the place of X86 processors. Apple could have had an early advantage. I wonder if Apple missed a good opportunity.