Nvidia Carries The World (& The S&P 500) On Its Shoulders

Following a strong start to the year and a brief setback in April, the stock market returned to form in May, with the S&P 500 returning almost 5 percent last month. Overall, the index returned 11.3 percent in the first five months of 2024, bringing the 12-month return of the index to 28.2 percent.

As Statista's Felix Richter reports, like last year's rally, the index's latest strength was largely fueled by the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence, as chipmaker Nvidia and Microsoft, a key investor in OpenAI, were the biggest contributors to the S&P 500's overall gains. The former, fueled by strong earnings reports and the announcement of a 10-to-1 stock split, single-handedly carried the market through the first months of 2024, accounting for 32 percent of the S&P 500's total year-to-date return.

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According to Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, Nvidia's 121-percent return through May 31, contributed 3.65 percentage points to the S&P 500's overall return, putting it miles ahead of Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, who each contributed 0.78, 0.66 and 0.58 percentage points to the index' year-to-date return, respectively.

At the other end of the scale, Tesla dragged the index down 0.52 percentage points, as the company struggles with a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles, growing competition from China and the controversies surrounding Elon Musk, which are reportedly having a negative effect on Tesla's reputation.