According to Zhītōng Cáijīng, analysts at Piper Sandler listed the stocks with the highest increase measured by standard deviation in their Portfolio Strategy report. Overall, the S&P 500 index has risen 14.5% year-to-date. The outstanding performance in the first half of this year is the third best in the past 25 years, only surpassed by the first half of 2019 and the first half of 2023.

However, despite the strong performance of large-cap stocks which undoubtedly drove the market up, most of the US stock market is still down. Although the S&P 500 index hit new highs in the second quarter, only 25% of stocks set new records, except for Tesla (TSLA.US) and the "Magnificent Seven" stocks also set historical highs.

Analyst Michael Kantrowitz wrote:"Narrow range gains are the result of macro risks that refuse to disappear (i.e. the higher the interest rate, the longer the interest rate) and the differentiation of profit backgrounds, only large-cap stocks showed strong earnings performance."

The current market breadth is as low as it was in 2000, but some stocks have shown extreme increases in relative performance. Stocks in the S&P 1500 index that are more than 2 standard deviations above average annual performance include Qualcomm (QCOM.US), Micron Technology (MU.US), AT&T (T.US), Arista Network (ANET.US), Amphenol (APH.US), Fidelity National Information Services (FIS.US), Vistra (VST.US), Western Digital (WDC.US), GoDaddy (GDDY.US), Domino's Pizza (DPZ.US), NRG Energy (nrg energy), WestRock (WRK.US), Gap (GPS), Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (SFM.US), Jackson Financial Inc. Class A (JXN.US), ACI Worldwide (ACIW.US), Bloomin' Brands Inc. (EAT.US), StepStone Group (STEP.US), Mercury General (MCY.US), Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTX.US), Telephone and Data Systems (TDS.US), Hawkins Inc. (HWKN.US), MillerKnoll Inc. (MLKN.US), National Healthcare Corp. (NHC.US), Quinstreet (QNST.US), and Phibro Animal Health (phibro animal health).