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The Nasdaq Composite Index on Thursday turned green for the year, driven by shares of Microsoft Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Tesla Inc.
The Nasdaq COMP, +1.34% includes 2,701 companies, and investors have long associated it with startups, rapidly growing small-cap companies and technology firms, but it also includes many large companies and is weighted by market capitalization. So big names have powered this year’s gains.
After a record closing high Feb. 19, the Nasdaq plummeted along with other broad indexes to hit a closing low for the year March 23, when it was down 23.5% for 2020. But at about 1:15 ET on May 7, the Nasdaq was up 0.4% for 2020, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.88% was down 15.8% and the S&P 500 Index SPX, +1.15% was down 10.3%. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends.)
The fast rebound from March was propelled by unprecedented and rapid stimulus from the federal government and the Federal Reserve through myriad programs. At the same time, unemployment claims have risen to shocking levels.
“What investors are responding to is the Fed activity,” which has “reassured people,” Matt Quinlan, a co-portfolio manger of the Franklin Rising Dividend Fund FRDPX, -0.55%, said in an interview May 7.
Stocks leading the Nasdaq
Since the Nasdaq is weighted by market capitalization, the Nasdaq-100 Index NDX, +1.20% provides the best insight into which companies have driven this year’s recovery. The Nasdaq-100 includes the largest companies in the full Nasdaq Composite Index by market capitalization, excluding the financial services sector. It is tracked by the QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, +1.22%, which has $97.5 billion in assets under management.
Here are the 20 stocks among the Nasdaq-100 that have performed the best during 2020, as of 1:15 ET:
| Company | Ticker | Price change – 2020 | Price change – 2019 |
| Tesla Inc. | TSLA, -0.28% | 87.7% | 25.7% |
| DexCom Inc. | DXCM, +10.86% | 81.0% | 82.6% |
| Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. | REGN, +2.47% | 51.4% | 0.5% |
| Seattle Genetics Inc. | SGEN, -0.12% | 44.2% | 101.7% |
| Citrix Systems Inc. | CTXS, +2.59% | 36.1% | 8.2% |
| Netflix Inc. | NFLX, +0.31% | 35.5% | 20.9% |
| PayPal Holdings Inc. | PYPL, +13.83% | 34.5% | 28.6% |
| MercadoLibre Inc. | MELI, +2.25% | 33.2% | 95.3% |
| Nvidia Corp. | NVDA, +2.44% | 30.3% | 76.3% |
| Amazon.com Inc. | AMZN, +0.26% | 27.8% | 23.0% |
| JD.com Inc. ADR Class A | JD, +3.30% | 26.8% | 68.3% |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. | VRTX, +0.14% | 24.4% | 32.1% |
| Activision Blizzard Inc. | ATVI, +0.33% | 23.7% | 27.6% |
| Gilead Sciences Inc. | GILD, +0.92% | 20.1% | 3.9% |
| T-Mobile US Inc. | TMUS, +8.75% | 19.5% | 23.3% |
| Cadence Design Systems Inc. | CDNS, +0.51% | 18.2% | 59.5% |
| Microsoft Corp. | MSFT, +0.41% | 16.7% | 55.3% |
| Synopsys Inc. | SNPS, +1.39% | 14.8% | 65.2% |
| Ebay Inc. | EBAY, +1.36% | 14.9% | 28.6% |
| Advanced Micro Devices Inc. | AMD, -0.81% | 14.4% | 148.4% |
| Source: FactSet | |||
You can click on the tickers for more about each company.
You may have to scroll the table to see all of the data.
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