An April To Remember For Stocks

Below is a snapshot of key ETF performance across asset classes for the month of April and so far year to date.

The S&P 500 (SPY) jumped more than 10% in April for its best month since November 2020.  The Tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) did even better with a gain of 15.7%, while the Dow 30 (DIA) was up a more modest 7.7%.

Growth outperformed value, and dividend stocks lagged badly.

The Tech sector ETF (XLK) gained more than 20%, while the semis (SMH) gained 32%!  On the downside, both Health Care (XLV) and Energy (XLE) actually finished the month in the red.

Country ETFs gained in April, but they didn't gain nearly as much as the US.  Oil (USO) rallied 15.6%, but natural gas (UNG), gold (GLD), and silver (SLV) were all down.  Longer duration Treasury ETFs were slightly lower in April, but the bond market as a whole (AGG, BND) was up 15 bps.

There were some historic moves for individual stocks in April, including two Russell 1,000 stocks that more than doubled: Organon (OGN) and Intel (INTC).

Intel began April with a market cap of roughly $222 billion.  It ended the month with a market cap of $474.9 billion.

As shown in the table below, Tech stocks dominated the list of April winners, making up 19 of the top 25 performers.  Other notable winners include Astera Labs (ALAB), Advanced Micro (AMD), and Sandisk (SNDK) -- all up 70%+.

Of course, not all stocks went up in April.  Below are the 25 worst performers in the Russell 1,000 during the month, led by Lucid (LCID) with a 33% drop.  Charter (CHTR), Liberty (LBRDK), and Tractor Supply (TSCO) all fell more than 20%, while other notables on the list of April losers include NIKE (NKE), Wayfair (W), ServiceNow (NOW), and Northrop Grumman (NOC).