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Here Are the Top-Performing Stocks From the S&P 500 This Year

  • May 29, 2025

The stock market has been one heck of a seesaw in 2025.

A bit over a month ago, the S&P 500 was down more than 15% on the year and narrowly avoided an official bear market (in fact, it closed down 19% from its highs and touched bear territory intraday). The Nasdaq officially entered one.

By mid-May, the S&P 500 soared back into the green for 2025. It was the fastest recovery in over 40 years, with the index erasing its 15% year-to-date loss in less than six weeks. It’s a good reminder that one of the worst mistakes we can make is to panic sell during times of market stress.

The market is now telling us two things. First, it’s to expect a quicker-than-anticipated resolution to the tariff issues and trade wars. And alongside that, the assumption is that inflation remains under control, which will allow the Fed to resume the rate-cutting process. This should provide a further tailwind to equity prices.

An underlying downward trend in inflation combined with better-than-expected corporate earnings also helped propel the S&P 500 back near record highs.

Sector Rotation Evident as Technology Rebounds

There’s no doubt that a strong 2024 was met with heavy selling early this year. Markets came under pressure as volatility increased amid uncertainty surrounding President Trump’s tariffs.

We also saw defensive sectors take the lead as market participants altered positioning. Even after this latest rally, two of the top three S&P sectors this year include utilities and consumer staples. These are two sectors we’d expect to hold up relatively well during corrections and bear markets.

But things have quickly changed course with the technology sector roaring back. Unique catalysts such as the artificial intelligence theme resulted in the more aggressive pockets of the market returning to the forefront. The information technology sector is the leading sector over the past month; this is aligned with the secular bull thesis, as we’d expect tech stocks to outperform in a bull market.

The media-hyped concentration risk at the very top of the cap-weighted S&P 500 would have us believe that investors are becoming increasingly reliant on a smaller number of companies to lead their portfolios. Yet none of the top 25 S&P 500 constituents (by index weight) are included in the best 3 performers in 2025.

The evidence is now pointing to the notion that this correction in the S&P 500 has come to an abrupt end. Let’s take a look at the top three performers so far this year from the blue-chip index.

S&P 500 Gold: NRG Energy

An integrated power company operating in the United States, NRG Energy NRG is leading the pack in 2025. Renewed strength in rate-sensitive utilities provides a durable backing for this industry leader.

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