Ford, Tesla and Netflix are among the best-performing stocks since the summer rally

Of Sergei Klebnikov

With the S&P 500 up 17% from a mid-June low, big names such as Ford, Tesla and Netflix were among the biggest gainers, while several energy and consumer stocks fell despite a broad stock market rally last months.

The benchmark S&P 500 has erased most of its losses from a violent selloff in the first half of the year, jumping 17% from a market low on June 16 and recently posting a four-week winning streak (which was snapped yesterday with down 300 points).

Stocks have rebounded in recent weeks on growing optimism that inflation may have peaked after inflation fell slightly in July, adding to hopes that the Federal Reserve will scale back its aggressive rate hike campaign and monetary policy tightening her.

The best-performing stocks in the S&P 500’s rally since June 16 are Enphase Energy, a provider of solar energy components, and e-commerce company Etsy, up 75% and 65% during that period, respectively.

Several software companies also posted big gains, with the likes of Epam Systems up 57%, payroll services provider Paycom up 49% and cloud networking company Arista Networks up 46%.

A number of household names have also seen significant gains over the past two months, including traditional automaker Ford (up 45%), electric vehicle maker Tesla (up nearly 43%) and streaming giant Netflix (up 41%).

Other notable gainers in the S&P 500 include Chipotle and digital payments giant PayPal – both up about 39%, as well as tech giants Amazon and Apple, up 37% and 34% respectively.

Just 20 S&P 500 stocks have fallen more than 2 percent during the bear market rally since June 16, according to Bloomberg data.

The worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 since this year’s market low are Colorado-based gold miner Newmont, down nearly 31%, and oil services company Baker Hughes, down 15%.

Several energy companies have led the market decline amid a drop in oil prices, which have fallen from a high of around $120 a barrel in early June to around $90 a barrel.

Parent company Apache Corp. of APA Corp. is down more than 13%, while Halliburton is down more than 11%, Phillips 66% more than 7% and Marathon Oil 4%.

Several consumer-focused stocks also fell, including Tinder parent Match Group (down nearly 11%), Verizon (down 8%), Walgreens Boots Alliance (down 3%) and Johnson & Johnson ( down 2%).

A raft of better-than-expected economic data for July – including a strong jobs report and a drop in consumer prices – has boosted investor optimism about a possible peak in inflation.

Many traders have since become increasingly optimistic about an imminent Fed U-turn – where the central bank backs off its aggressive monetary tightening – although several experts warn that the market’s recent gains are nothing more than a rally by bear market.

The Fed plans more big rate hikes ahead until there is a significant reduction in inflation, indicating it will “take some time” before reversing monetary policy, according to minutes of the central bank’s last meeting. Despite growing investor optimism, many Wall Street analysts say more signs of slowing inflation are needed before the Federal Reserve cuts or reverses the pace of interest rate hikes and monetary tightening.

“Equities will likely struggle for direction for the rest of the summer as Wall Street remains uncertain about how hawkish the Fed will be in September,” predicts Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. Traders are about evenly split on whether the Fed will raise interest rates by another 75 basis points or a smaller 50 basis points at its next meeting, according to CME Group data.