Smart Investor: Top-Performing Dividend Stocks, Which Stocks Led the Q2 Rally and a Deceptive Jobs Gain

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This week’s highlights:

• Weekly Market Update: Basic Materials Lead Stocks to a 1.8% Gain
• 13 Charts on Q2’s Major Market Rebound
• 10 Top-Performing Dividend Stocks in Q2
• Why the June Jobs Report Isn’t as Strong as It Looks
• These Stocks Led the Market’s Big Rebound in Q2
• 5 Questions to Ask About Your Portfolio at Midyear 2025
• Best- and Worst-Performing Stocks of Q2
• Where Next for European and UK Stock Markets in 2025?
• Why the June Jobs Report Isn’t as Strong as It Looks

Pity us poor financial writers who have had to find synonyms for “roller coaster” to describe the ride investors have been on for the last few months. But it really is an extremely apt description for the second quarter. In our quarterly wrap-up, Sarah Hansen opted to describe April as experiencing a “dizzying drop” before it “snapped back,” which does the job nicely. You can check out our chart-based recap of the overall trends here.

What drove that rebound? Bella Albrecht looked under at the names that led the stock market back up to new records. You might see some familiar themes.

One new trend over the last six months has been the significant outperformance of European stocks. Christopher Johnson from our London bureau looks at what’s next for stocks in the UK and on the Continent.

Against this backdrop, it’s worth reviewing your portfolio. The April dislocation and swings back may have thrown your allocations out of whack. We dig into questions you should ask about your portfolio at midyear.

Alongside these stories, we have our regular quarterly screens to highlight key market trends. We’ve got the second quarter’s best and worst stocks, with the gainers led by Robinhood and UnitedHealth among the worst performers. Gabe Alpert digs into how the largest stock funds fared, along with how the most widely held bond funds performed.

We also have a screen for the quarter’s top-performing dividend stocks. It’s a diverse list led by a mutual fund company, a lawn and garden supply manufacturer, and a toy maker.

Lastly, we look at the June jobs report. While the overall gain in hiring seems healthy, under the surface, there’s more weakness than would first appear. We explain why.

As always, be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates along with our full weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events.