Stocks posted their largest June gains in more than a decade, and closed the month with a bang. The S&P 500 made its largest point and percentage gains all year today (33.1 points and 2.5%), fueled by a deal among European leaders to recapitalize banks and centralize authority. The Dow posted its second highest gains of the year, jumping 277.8 points, or 2.2% (The biggest move was on June 6).
It was a striking end to a very mixed month news-wise� — investors fretted for the first two weeks about the election in Greece and a high-stakes Fed announcement, and bond yields in countries like Spain and Italy surged to frightening levels at times. Economic data out of the U.S. showed little promise — employment is still subdued, and manufacturing and housing stats were mixed. But clearly, the worst fears built into stock prices as of June 1 (Socialism in Greece! Collapse of the Euro zone!) had not played out as of June 29. And the final day of the month was the market exhaling all that stress.
It was the best June for the Dow since 1997 and the best for the S&P 500 since 1999.
On a quarterly basis, however, the picture isn’t as bright. After a record first quarter point gain for both the Dow and S&P 500, the indexes were down in the second quarter. The Dow was off 3.9% and the S&P 500 was down 3.3%.
The Dow’s top performer for the quarter was Verizon (VZ), which rose 16%. The bottom performer was JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which fell 22%. My colleague Brendan Conway has a roundup of ETF winners and losers.
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