Stocks advanced in heavy trading on Friday, closing the book on the best June for the stock market in generations, ahead of much-anticipated trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit now underway in Japan.
All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground in first half of the year. The S&P 500 had its best June since 1955. The Dow posted its biggest June percentage gain since 1938, the waning days of the Great Depression.
Despite the overall market gains, half of the eight publicly traded companies in Chattanooga lost value during the first half of the year. But Chattanooga's biggest companies, Unum and Mohawk Industries, each recorded double-digit gains in the first six months of 2019 after suffering big losses in the market last year.
From the start of 2019, after investors fled equities amid fears of a global economic slowdown, which sent stock markets tumbling in December, the benchmark S&P 500 jumped 17.3%, its largest first-half increase since 1997.
"The market came to the realization that the world is not going to end," John Ham, financial adviser at New England Investment and Retirement Group in North Andover, Massachusetts, told Reuters news service. "Also, (Federal Reserve chair) Powell did a 180 since (the Fed's) last (interest) rate hike, which has put wind in our sails in the first half of the year."
How local stocks fared
How local stocks fared in first half of 2019:* Mohawk Industries up 26.1% to $147.47* Unum up 14.2% to $33.55* Miller Industries up 13.9% to $30.75* Astec Industries up 7.9% to $32.56* U.S. Xpress Enterprises down 8.4% to $5.14* Dixie Group down 18.3% to 58 cents* Covenant Transport down 23.4% t0 $14.71* CBL Properties down 45.8% to $1.04 cents* Dow Jones Industrials up 14% to 26,599.96* S&P 500 is up 17% to 2,941.76