From Joe Hargett: With the end of 2017 approaching, I want to take a moment to look back at the past year. Think back to the beginning of 2017 for a moment. Fresh off the November election, I think we all expected the stock market to rally.
But did you expect the Dow Jones Industrial Average to be up more than 24%?
If you did anticipate a large gain for the Dow, what component did you have pegged as the top gainer? For many readers and investors, it was likely Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). As you can tell from the title of this article, that’s not the case.
Since tech has been hot in 2017, and was on fire heading into the year, you might have guessed Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) was the top Dow performer. Or maybe with President Donald Trump’s promised rollbacks of financial banking regulations, you had thought JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).
None of those things came to pass, however. Apple has only gained about 49% so far this year, while Microsoft is up 37%. JPMorgan has added a mere 22% despite all the bluster back in January over reversing Obama-era banking restrictions.
No … 2017 was the year for manufacturing and capital equipment. The No. 2 biggest gainer on the Dow in 2017 was Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), with a year-to-date return of 58%.
You may remember that I first recommended CAT stock back on June 7, and then reiterated my bullish stance on September 20. CAT stock is up 43% since June, and is still powering higher on strong global demand for construction and mining equipment.
While a 58% return is nice, the biggest gainer on the Dow is currently up more than 88% since the start of the year. This company’s shares have also come in as the 12th-biggest percentage gainers among all U.S. NYSE stocks. What’s more, those gains could extend well into 2018 …
Flying the Skies with Boeing Stock
The list of investors who picked Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) to be 2017’s biggest gainer on the Dow has to be pretty short, especially compared to the list expecting Apple to rise to the top once again. But in 2017, the Boeing stock price was a bigger gainer than Apple.
While Apple was plagued with analysts’ delivery concerns (that were only partially true) regarding its new iPhone, Boeing was raking up multibillion-dollar deals to replace aging fleets across the globe. Boeing’s “iPhone” launch was its unveiling of the new 737 MAX 10 at the Paris Air Show back in June.
The unveiling provided considerable momentum for Boeing, and by the beginning of December, the company had net firm orders for more than 660 aircraft on the year. By comparison, Boeing brought in just 668 orders in all of 2016, and leading competitor Airbus had only booked 333 net firm orders by the end of November.