Economic Indicators - The Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.69%, 1.95%, and 0.58% respectively in the last trading week [1] - The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.2% in April, with a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, the lowest since February 2021 [2] - The producer price index (PPI) declined by 0.5% in April, with a 12-month increase of 2.4% [2] - Retail sales increased by 0.1% in April, aligning with market expectations [2] - Consumer sentiment index fell to 50.8% in May, the lowest in its history [2] Company Performance - IHS Holding Limited's shares increased by 33.6% since being upgraded to Zacks Rank 1 on March 21 [3] - British Land Company PLC returned 16% since its upgrade to Zacks Rank 2 on March 21 [4] - Stantec Inc. and Bankinter, S.A. saw share increases of 21.4% and 10.8% respectively after their upgrades to Outperform [8] - Axon Enterprise, Inc. and Quanta Services, Inc. gained 23.6% and 18.1% respectively over the past 12 weeks [11] Portfolio Performance - The Zacks Model Portfolio of Rank 1 stocks outperformed the S&P 500 index by over 12 percentage points since 1988, with an annualized average return of +23.5% [5][7] - The Zacks Focus List portfolio returned +18.41% in 2024, compared to +25.04% for the S&P 500 index [12] - The Earnings Certain Admiral Portfolio (ECAP) returned +3.20% in Q1 2025, outperforming the S&P 500 index's -4.30% decline [16] - The Earnings Certain Dividend Portfolio (ECDP) returned +5.74% in Q1 2025, compared to the S&P 500 index's -2.41% pullback [19] Long-term Performance - The Top 10 portfolio has produced a cumulative return of +1832.3% since 2012, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 index's +434.2% [22] - The Zacks Focus List portfolio has an annualized return of +11.33% since 2004, compared to +9.95% for the S&P 500 index [14]
Take the Zacks Approach to Beat the Markets: IHS, Stantec, Fastenal in Focus