S&P 500 rally stretches to 5 months as broader market rises in September

The S&P 500's ongoing rally stretched into a fifth straight month in September as major US stock indexes also rose.

The large-cap S&P 500 rose 2.0% during the month, reaching a new record high following summer turmoil. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, rose 1.8% and reached its own all-time high. The small-cap focused Russell 2000 notched a more narrow 0.6% gain.

The stretch of monthly gains in equities comes amid a supersized rate cut by the US Federal Reserve in September and increasing signs of a US economic soft landing.

Sector performance

Eight of the S&P 500's 11 sectors rose during the month.

The consumer discretionary sector posted the strongest gain at 7.0%. All but nine of the 50 stocks in the sector rose during September, with Las Vegas Sands Corp. posting the largest gain among consumer discretionary companies at 29.1%. Caesars Entertainment Inc., Carnival Corp. & PLC, eBay Inc. and Tesla Inc. were also among the consumer discretionary stocks that rose by double-digit percentages during the month.

– Set email alerts for future Data Dispatch articles. – For further global market analysis, try the Market View Excel template. – Read some of the day's top news and insights from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Energy companies posted the largest drop, with the sector falling 2.8% on the month. Only four of the S&P 500's 22 energy stocks — Baker Hughes Co., EQT Corp., Kinder Morgan Inc. and Targa Resources Corp. — rose during September.

The financials and healthcare sectors were the only others to drop month over month.

Largest gains, drops

Utility company Vistra Corp. was the best-performing S&P 500 stock in September, rising 38.8% from the end of August. The company's shares popped on news that fellow energy player and top-performing S&P 500 company Constellation Energy Corp. reached a deal with Microsoft Corp. to power its datacenters and restart a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

Dollar Tree Inc., meanwhile, posted the worst performance of any S&P 500 company in September, falling 16.8% over the month. The bargain retailer early in the month missed earnings expectations and cut its full-year profit guidance.