Benzinga - by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor.
Mega-cap stocks have been going through volatility amid the market weakness seen in the past three months.
What Happened: Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist of Creative Planning Investor, shared a post on X, regarding the total 2023 returns from eight mega-caps, which he labeled “The Enormous Eight.”
The pack included Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META).
These stocks individually generated either triple- or double-digit returns compared to the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF’s (NYSE:RSP) -3% return for the year and the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF‘s (NYSE:IJR) -6% return.
2023 Total Returns…The Enormous Eight…$NVDA: +182%$META: +152%$TSLA: +60%$AMZN: +58%$MSFT: +42%$GOOGL: +41%$NFLX: +39%$AAPL: +32%
Everyone Else…
S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF $RSP: -3%
S&P Small Cap ETF $IJR: -6%
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) October 31, 2023
Cramer Cautious: CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer‘s sentiment toward the “enormous eight,” however, is laced with caution.
“Each one set up like bowling pins,” he said, apparently referring to the risk of dropping under the slightest whiff of any negative tiding.
The stock picker said, “The only thing that can stop the ease of short-selling is the equilibrium of sellers to buyers.”
“We don’t have that yet,” he added.
Stocks such as Tesla and Apple have a very high number of shares held as short. About 93.03 million shares of Apple are shorted as of Oct. 13 and about 84.69 million of Tesla shares are shorted.
Heavy short interest reflects rising negative sentiment toward the stock, which can pull in more short sellers.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) slipped 0.45% to $416.32 in premarket trading on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Read Next: Bearish Tesla Analyst Warns Of Potential Mass Exodus By Big Institutional Investors: ‘It’s Poor Results…That Are Getting Worse’
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