{"id":60,"date":"2026-07-13T09:20:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:20:36","slug":"wall-street-closes-out-a-blockbuster-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street Closes Out a Blockbuster First Half"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. stocks wrapped up the first half of 2026 with some of the strongest quarterly gains in years, capping a period marked by sharp swings but a resilient upward trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best Quarter in Years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq notched their best quarterly performance since 2020, while the Dow posted its biggest quarterly gain since 2022, as markets shook off periodic bouts of volatility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Small Caps Shine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russell 2000 was a standout performer, gaining more than 21% in the first half of the year \u2014 its best first-half showing since 1991 \u2014 and closing the period on a six-session winning streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Index-Level Scorecard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the first six months of the year, the S&amp;P 500 gained 9.6%, the Nasdaq climbed 12%, and the Dow rose 8.9%, marking the Dow&#8217;s best first-half performance since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Volatility Along the Way<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the strong headline numbers, the period included wild oil price swings tied to the Middle East conflict and repeated selloffs in AI-related tech stocks as investors periodically questioned the sustainability of the AI trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. stocks wrapped up the first half of 2026 with some of the strongest quarterly gains in years, capping a period marked by sharp swings but a resilient upward trend.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usastocksguru.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}