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The Top Performing Sectors in 2020, So Far

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The Top Performing Sectors in 2020, So Far

After a roller coaster start to the year, which S&P 500 sectors have seen positive returns, and which are still struggling to recover?

Energy prices collapsed as historic supply excesses hurt producers, refineries, and oil futures. Meanwhile, consumer behavior trends naturally bolstered the tech sector, as demand across online services soared. At the same time, the recent bounceback appeared to have been supported by a number of economic factors. Ultra-low interest rates, liquidity stimulus, and fiscal actions all helped to spur growth in stocks.

Today’s Markets in a Minute chart from New York Life Investments draws data from the S&P 500, showing how each sector has performed year to date amid historical volatility.

Coming Out On Top

Continuing the upswing seen in prior years, the tech sector has outperformed every other sector.

S&P 500 SectorsYear to Date Price Returns*
Information Technology
13.5%
Consumer Discretionary
7.6%
Communication Services
3%
Health Care
0.5%
Consumer Staples
-4.7%
Materials
-4.9%
Real Estate
-5.4%
Utilities
-5.9%
Industrials
-11.1%
Financials
-18.5%
Energy
-29.5%

*as of market close June 10, 2020

As of June 11th, the S&P 500 Information Technology sector has returned 13.5% YTD. This is impressive, considering that over the last decade, the sector averaged 17% in annualized returns. It goes without saying then, that large technology firms have proven resistant to 2020’s severe market upheavals.

Instead, housebound consumers are adopting tech at lightning-fast speeds.

“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”

—Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

Sector Strength

Following tech, what are the most resilient sectors so far in 2020?

Both e-commerce and discount firms boosted the consumer discretionary sector. E-commerce sales are projected to rise 18% in 2020 according to one study. At the same time, travel-related stocks across the sector felt much of the pain as restrictions cratered demand and individuals stayed at home.

Top SectorsYear to Date Price Returns*
Information Technology13.5%
Consumer Discretionary7.6%
Communication Services3%
Health Care0.5%

*as of market close June 10, 2020

Also weathering the storm was the communication services sector. Gaming heavyweights outperformed the index as a whole, as engagement and revenues witnessed positive momentum.

Surprisingly, the health care sector barely broke even. On one hand, there’s been surging optimism surrounding the eight S&P biotech firms developing COVID-19 vaccines. Investor enthusiasm led their combined market caps to balloon from $160 billion to over $600 billion within a narrow time frame.

Still, these gains were offset by a number of other health subsectors. The impact of COVID-19 created vulnerabilities across healthcare firms in dental, surgery, and physical therapy with high levels of debt. Additionally, 60% of firms in this sector have a ‘B’, or low credit rating, meaning they are more likely to default on payments.

Lagging Behind

As for the worst performing sectors, three have witnessed double-digit losses.

So far, it has been a harrowing year for the energy sector. Shifting mobility patterns coupled with a Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war pushed oil prices into negative territory for the first time ever. Although this was a temporary event, current prices have still not recovered to anywhere near pre-COVID levels.

Worst SectorsYear to Date Price Returns*
Energy-29.5%
Financials-18.5%
Industrials-11.1%
Utilities-5.9%

*as of market close June 10, 2020

While energy dropped almost 30% year-to-date, financials also sank 18.5% as banking stocks failed to participate in the recent market reversal. An expected increase in loan losses is one possible factor behind investor skittishness, along with dampened lending activity.

Industrials, too, faced headwinds as supply chain disruptions threw a wrench in returns. Supplier plant shutdowns and transportation challenges weighed heavily on their operations. However, inventories and imports began to show signs of recovery in May.

Of course, there is still a long way to go. While there is renewed optimism as economies reopen, sustained consumer demand and economic growth figure prominently. At the same time, investors can stay open to sector opportunities as a future economic recovery steers ahead.

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Markets in a Minute

How Small Investments Make a Big Impact Over Time

Compound interest is a powerful force in building wealth. Here’s how it impacts even the most modest portfolio over the long-term.

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This bar chart shows the power of compound interest and regular contributions over time.

How Small Investments Make a Big Impact Over Time

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Time is an investor’s biggest ally, even if they start with just a modest portfolio.

The reason behind this is compounding interest, of course, thanks to its ability to magnify returns as interest earns interest on itself. With a fortune of $159 billion, Warren Buffett largely credits compound interest as a vital ingredient to his success—describing it like a snowball collecting snow as it rolls down a very long hill.

This graphic shows how compound interest can dramatically impact the value of an investor’s portfolio over longer periods of time, based on data from Investor.gov.

Why Compound Interest is a Powerful Force

Below, we show how investing $100 each month, with a 10% annual return starting at the age of 25 can generate outsized returns by simply staying the course:

AgeTotal ContributionsInterestPortfolio Value
25$1,300$10$1,310
30$7,300$2,136$9,436
35$13,300$9,223$22,523
40$19,300$24,299$43,599
45$25,300$52,243$77,543
50$31,300$100,910$132,210
55$37,300$182,952$220,252
60$43,300$318,743$362,043
65$49,300$541,101$590,401
70$55,300$902,872$958,172
75$61,300$1,489,172$1,550,472

Portfolio value is at end of each time period. All time periods are five years except for the first year (Age 25) which includes a $100 initial contribution. Interest is computed annually.

As we can see, the portfolio grows at a relatively slow pace over the first five years.

But as the portfolio continues to grow, the interest earned begins to exceed the contributions in under 15 years. That’s because interest is earned not only on the total contributions but on the accumulated interest itself. So by the age of 40, the total contributions are valued at $19,300 while the interest earned soars to $24,299.

Not only that, the interest earned soars to double the value of the investor’s contributions over the next five years—reaching $52,243 compared to the $25,300 in principal.

By the time the investor is 75, the power of compound interest becomes even more eye-opening. While the investor’s lifetime contributions totaled $61,300, the interest earned ballooned to 25 times that value, reaching $1,489,172.

In this way, it shows that investing consistently over time can benefit investors who stick it through stock market ups and downs.

The Two Key Ingredients to Growing Money

Generally speaking, building wealth involves two key pillars: time and rate of return.

Below, we show how these key factors can impact portfolios based on varying time horizons using a hypothetical example. Importantly, just a small difference in returns can make a huge impact on a portfolio’s end value:

Annual ReturnPortfolio Value
25 Year Investment Horizon
Portfolio Value
75 Year Investment Horizon
5%$57,611$911,868
8%$88,412$4,835,188
12%$161,701$49,611,684

With this in mind, it’s important to take into account investment fees which can erode the value of your investments.

Even the difference of 1% in investment fees adds up over time, especially over the long run. Say an investor paid 1% in fees, and had an after-fee return of 9%. If they had a $100 starting investment, contributed monthly over a 25-year time span, their portfolio would be worth over $102,000 at the end of the period.

By comparison, a 10% return would have made over $119,000. In other words, they lost roughly $17,000 on their investment because of fees.

Another important factor to keep in mind is inflation. In order to preserve the value of your portfolio, its important to choose investments that beat inflation, which has historically averaged around 3.3%.

For perspective, since 1974 the S&P 500 has returned 12.5% on average annually (including reinvested dividends), 10-Year U.S. Treasury bonds have returned 6.6%, while real estate has averaged 5.6%. As we can see, each of these have outperformed inflation over longer horizons, with varying degrees of risk and return.

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What Were the Top Performing Investment Themes of 2023?

In 2023, several investment themes outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin. Here are the top performers—from blockchain to AI.

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The Top Performing Investment Themes in 2023

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

While the S&P 500 rebounded over 24% in 2023, many investment themes soared even higher.

In many ways, the year was defined by breakthrough announcements in AI and the resurgence of Bitcoin. At the same time, investors looked to nuclear energy ETFs thanks to nuclear’s growing role as a low carbon energy source and the war in Ukraine.

This graphic shows the best performing investment themes last year, based on data from Trackinsight.

Blockchain ETFs Lead the Pack

With 82% returns, blockchain ETFs outperformed all other themes in the U.S. due to the sharp rise in the bitcoin price over the year.

These ETFs hold mainly bitcoin mining firms, since ETFs investing directly in bitcoin were not yet approved by regulators in 2023. However, as of January 2024, U.S. regulators have approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs for trading, which drew in $10 billion in assets in their first 20 days alone.

Below, we show the top performing themes across U.S. ETFs in 2023:

Theme2023 Performance
Blockchain82%
Next Generation Internet80%
Metaverse59%
FinTech54%
Nuclear Energy50%
Cloud Computing49%
AI/Big Data49%
Gig Economy48%
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity43%

As we can see, next generation internet ETFs—which include companies focused on the internet of things and new payment methods—also boomed.

Meanwhile, nuclear energy ETFs had a banner year as uranium prices hit 15-year highs. Investor optimism for nuclear power is part of a wider trend of reactivating nuclear power plants globally in the push towards decarbonizing the energy supply. In fact, 63 new reactors across countries including Japan, Türkiye, and China are planned for construction amid higher global demand.

With 49% returns, AI and big data ETFs were another top performing investment theme. Driving these returns were companies like chipmaker Nvidia, whose share price jumped by 239% in 2023 thanks to its technology being fundamental to powering AI models.

Top Investment Themes, by Net Flows

Here are the the investment themes that saw the highest net flows over the year:

Theme2023 Net Flows
Robotics & Automation$1,303M
Nuclear Energy$997M
AI/Big Data$987M
Global Infrastructure$734M
Net Zero 2050$716M
Blockchain$357M
Cannabis & Psychedelics$270M
Emerging Markets Consumer Growth$203M

Overall, ETFs focused on robotics and automation saw the greatest net flows amid wider deployment of these technologies across factories, healthcare, and transportation actvities.

The success of AI large language models over the year is another key factor in powering robotics capabilities. For instance, Microsoft is planning to build a robot powered by ChatGPT that provides it with higher context awareness of certain tasks.

Like robotics and automation, AI and big data, along with blockchain ETFs attracted high inflows.

Interestingly, ETFs surrounding emerging markets consumer growth saw strong inflows thanks to an expanding middle class across countries like India and China spurring potential growth opportunities. In 2024, 113 million people are projected to join the global middle class, seen mainly across countries in Asia.

Will Current Trends Continue in 2024?

So far, many of these investment themes have continued to see positive momentum including blockchain and next generation internet ETFs.

In many cases, these investment themes cover broad, underlying trends that have the potential to reshape sectors and industries. Going further, select investment themes have often defined each decade thanks to factors like technological disruption, geopolitics, and the economic environment.

While several factors could impact their performance—such as a global downturn or a second wave of inflation—it remains to be seen if investor demand will carry through the year and beyond.

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