The stock market indexes have enjoyed record highs in recent years with the S&P 500 outperforming other years with President Joe Biden leading the country for the last nearly four years.
With the 2024 presidential election nearing, here's a look back at the top performing S&P 500 stocks in 2021, which was Biden's first year in the White House.
What Happened: Biden stepped down from the 2024 presidential election earlier this year. While the current president won't be re-elected to the White House, past performance with a Democrat as president could highlight which stocks and sectors could be winners if Kamala Harris is victorious in Tuesday's election.
The S&P 500, which is tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) was up 26.9% in 2021. This marked the best yearly performance since 2018 and the second-best performance for the key stock market index in the last 11 years.
The 12 months following Election Day 2020, which was won by Biden, This was the best one-year market return under a president in many years.
Here were the 10 best-performing S&P 500 stocks in 2021, according to a report from InvestorPlace, and their sectors.
- Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN): 196.1%, energy
- Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO): 149.7%, energy
- Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA): 143.1%, health care/biotech
- Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT): 142.0%, technology/cybersecurity
- Signature Bank (OTC:SBNY): 141.5%, financials
- Ford (NYSE:F): 137.5%, automotive
- Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI): 133.7%, consumer discretionary/retail
- Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG): 127.4%, energy
- NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA): 125.5%, technology/semiconductors
- Nucor (NYSE:NUE): 118.4%, industrials
The results above show that energy was a top sector in 2021 and represented several of the top-performing stocks for the year. Technology also had several companies on the list.
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Why It's Important: Click through to see the 10 best and 10 worst-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2017, Donald Trump's first year in the White House.
The list above included Nvidia, which was also a top 10 winner in 2017, during Donald Trump's first year in the White House.
Signature Bank, which was the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history, was a top performer in 2017.
Investors should consider whether these past results could repeat if Harris is elected and begins her presidential term in 2025. Energy isn't often thought of as a segment that could do well under a Democratic president, but past results show that the sector could do well, at least in the first year.
Coincidentally, energy was cited as a potential poor sector if Trump wins the 2024 election based on the 2017 results. What likely happened in 2017, and what could happen again, is a run-up in stocks during the election year and a potential selloff in the year after as investors take profits.
With less than one week until the 2024 election, investors are likely positioning their portfolio based on a Trump or Harris victory in some regards. With a close election predicted, investors may want to look to sectors that could benefit under either candidate.
Freedom Capital Markets Chief Global Strategist Jay Woods previously shared some sectors and stocks to watch with Benzinga that could benefit regardless of whether Trump or Harris wins the 2024 election.
Woods named defense stocks and cybersecurity stocks as two of the top sectors to watch ahead of the 2024 election.
“I think you’ve got to watch this sector closely,” Woods said of the defense sector.
Woods added that defense stocks could continue to benefit from geopolitical concerns and the world's many adverse events.
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Photo: Shutterstock
