Summary
As we approach the end of 2024, one might suspect that institutions, hedge funds, and money managers that are beating their benchmark might lighten up on their equity exposure and start planning for 2025. Meanwhile, those that manage money and are behind going into December have little time to catch up — and might be inclined to grab some of the highest momentum stocks out there and increase their risk exposure. But December can be difficult to navigate, as what appears likely to happen doesn’t always play out as expected. Looking for the largest stocks in the S&P 500 (SPX) that have done the best over the past month, we note Amazon (AMZN +11%), Tesla (TSLA +26%), Walmart (WMT +11%), JPMorgan (JPM +13%), Visa (V +11%), UnitedHealth (UNH +8%), Oracle (ORCL +10%), Costco (COST +9%), Netflix (NFLX +16%), Bank of America (BAC +14%), and Salesforce (CRM +18%). The market cap of these companies ranges from $330 billion to $3.5 trillion. The list is dominated by Consumer Discretionary and Financial, which just happen to be the hottest sectors from the past month. The S&P 500 finished at an all-time high (ATH) on Tuesday, finishing above 6,000 after a 0.6% pop. There is no
