Videogames and Two-Day Delivery Powered the S&P's Rise to 3000 -- 2nd Update

By Alexander Osipovich 

Tech stocks including Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. led the pack during the S&P 500's half-decade march from 2000 to 3000, while oil companies were among the laggards.

Making stock-market history -- or at least delighting financial-data nerds and people who like round numbers -- the S&P 500 briefly crested the 3000 level for the first time on Wednesday, though it later retreated and closed at 2993.07.

The broad-based index first closed higher than 2000 on Aug. 26, 2014, a little over five years ago.

Since then, the top performer in the S&P 500 has been medical-device company Abiomed Inc., up 892%. After that are two semiconductor companies: Nvidia Inc., the maker of computer chips used by videogamers and bitcoin miners, up 723%, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., up 706%.

In fourth place is Amazon.com Inc. Shares of the online-commerce giant that sells consumers everything from diapers to electronics and gets it to their doors in rapid fashion gained 490% and its market cap surged $835 billion in that period.

Fifth best is MarketAxess Holdings Inc., a financial-technology company that climbed 487% on a rising tide of interest in electronic bond trading on Wall Street.

Abiomed and MarketAxess were added to the S&P 500 last year and in July, respectively.

After that come Netflix Inc., up 456%, and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., creator of hit videogame franchises like "Grand Theft Auto," up 425%.

The five S&P 500 constituents that fared the worst in that period -- while still managing to retain a spot in the index -- include three in the oil patch, reflecting that crude prices collapsed in late 2014 and have yet to fully recover.

Oil-field services firm National Oilwell Varco was the worst performer in the S&P 500, plunging 74%, followed by oil producer Apache Corp., down 73%.

Telecom company CenturyLink Inc. is the third-worst laggard in the index, with a 71% drop, showing the struggles of the wireline business of laying telephone and internet lines, which has been marked by brutal competition for years.

Rounding out the five worst performers of the S&P 500 are two more commodities companies: copper mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc., down 70%, and oil driller Noble Energy Inc., down 69%.

--Alexander Osipovich

Write to Alexander Osipovich at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 10, 2019 18:54 ET (22:54 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.