Nasdaq 100 Stocks Up An Average of 20% YTD

The Nasdaq has been the best performer of the three major US indices (Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow 30) so far in 2009 (+10.9%). The biggest stocks in the Nasdaq make up the Nasdaq 100 index, and it's up even more than the overall Nasdaq with a gain of 16.4%. And the average stock in the cap-weighted Nasdaq 100 is up even more at +20%.

Below we highlight the 30 best performing stocks in the Nasdaq 100 year to date. JAVA ranks first with a gain of 135% because Oracle (ORCL) is buying it, so it will be coming out of the index once the acquisition goes through. Liberty Media (LINTA) ranks second at 97%, followed by Baidu (BIDU), Research In Motion (RIMM), and Expedia (EXPE). We've highlighted companies that make up more than 1% of the index in grey. These include Apple (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), First Solar (FSLR), Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), and Adobe (ADBE).

There are 23 stocks in the Nasdaq 100 that are down year to date. PPDI is down the most with a decline of 31.75%, followed by Celgene (CELG), Cephalon (CEPH), and Apollo Group (APOL). Most of the stocks on the list of losers aren't in the technology sector which makes up the bulk of the index.

Comments

[Prudent Man...:]

Does this mean Happy Days are Here Again?

Not according to Geithner. He is keeping all of the TARP money repaid to make up for their future screw ups that are already on the drafting board.

By the way, can we "green" the planet without Russia, China, India, et al? Not a chance. We will only put our companies at an economic disadvantage while raising middle class taxes. Now that is a plan to get us out of recession!

That is about as well thought out as the closing of Gitmo. Only a rock star can get away with such nonsense. If we only had a leader.

May 20 02:43 PM

[RiskReturnO...:]

QQQQ rally is gaining momentum. Technology will continue to lead the market up. Once the biotechs (notice that they were among the biggest underperformers) regain some strength, it's not unlikely to see another 10%-20% move up in QQQQ by the end of the year, bringing it to $40.

This may sound like a big move and irrational for the bears, but keep in mind that this thing used to trade $100 in the good old days of 2000 (so it would still be DOWN 60% from the peak, not too different from path followed by other "generational bubbles" -- Nikkei 1990, DJIA 1929, etc).

May 20 07:31 PM