The last were first on the first trading day of 2024.
Value stocks started the year with a flourish while growth stocks, particularly those in the tech sector, were in the red as investors reversed their preferences from 2023.
The
S&P 500 index
was off 0.6% at 4,742 Tuesday but large-cap value stocks, as measured by the
iShares Russell 1,000 Value
exchange-traded fund (IWD) was up 0.4% to $165.83 while the
iShares Russell 1,000 Growth
ETF was down 1.5% at $298.67.
The Russell 1,000 Value ETF contains the value stocks in the Russell 1,000 index (the largest 1,000 stocks in the market) while the Russell 1,000 Growth ETF holds the index’s growth stocks. The overall Russell 1,000 index tends to track the S&P 500 index.
The rotation into value stocks marks a change from 2023 when the iShares Russell 1,000 Growth ETF returned 42.5% while its value counterpart was up just 11.3%.
The shift is apparent in individual stocks with
Moderna,
one of the biggest losers in the S&P 500 during 2023, rising 13.1% to $112.50, helped by favorable comments from an Oppenheimer analyst. It was the index’s best performer today. Another big winner Tuesday was
Pfizer,
another big loser from 2023. Pfizer gained 3.3% at $29.73.
Winning groups today include consumer staples, utilities and healthcare, all big laggards in 2023.
PepsiCo
gained 1.8% to $172.91. The Health-Care Select Sector SPDR ETF gained 1.8%.
The biggest losers in the S&P 500 Tuesday were heavily populated with some of the index’s big winners from 2023, including
Apple,
Intel
and
Carnival.
The
Technology Select Sector
SPDR fell 2.6%.
Amazon.com,
Uber
and
Alphabet,
other strong stocks in 2023, also are in the red Tuesday.
Apple
fell 3.6% to $185.64, hurt by negative comments by a Barclays analyst.
Stocks with strong recent momentum are down Tuesday while factors associated with value investing, like high dividends, are in the black.
Whether the trend continues remains to be seen but Tuesday’s action is a welcome relief for beleaguered value investors.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
Read the full article here