Last Friday, the three most widely followed benchmark indexes closed a winning week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1%, 1.6% and 2%, respectively.
U.S. stocks rose last week as cooling inflation data and rising jobless claims boosted expectations that the Fed will cut rates at its September meeting. Geopolitical tensions remained contained, while lower oil prices eased inflation worries. Investor sentiment improved on hopes of a soft landing, with tech driving Nasdaq’s gains, defensive sectors supporting the S&P 500 and industrial resilience lifting the Dow, reflecting broad optimism despite global uncertainties.
Markets this week are focused on the Fed’s upcoming policy decision and signals on the timing and size of potential interest rate cuts.
Regardless of market conditions, we, here at Zacks, provide investors with unbiased guidance on how to beat the market.
As usual, Zacks Research guided investors over the past three months with its time-tested methodologies. Given the prevailing market uncertainty, you may want to look at our feats to prepare better for your next action.
Here are some of our key achievements:
Shares of Lemonade, Inc. LMND have gained 23.4% (versus the S&P 500’s 5.9% increase) since it was upgraded to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) on July 8.
Another stock, Interactive Brokers Group IBKR, which was upgraded to a Rank #1 (Strong Buy) on July 10, has returned 10.1% (versus the S&P 500’s 5.4% increase) since then.
A hypothetical portfolio of Zacks Rank # 1 (Strong Buy) stocks returned +8.64% in 2025 (through September 1st) vs. +7.60% for the S&P 500 index.
This portfolio returned +22.4% in 2024, vs. +28% for the S&P 500 index and +19.9% for the equal-weight version of the S&P 500 index.
This hypothetical portfolio returned +20.65% in 2023 vs. +24.83% for the S&P 500 index and +15% for the equal-weight S&P 500 index.
The Zacks Model Portfolio – consisting of Zacks Rank #1 stocks – has outperformed the S&P index by more than 12 percentage points since 1988 (through September 1st, 2025, the Zacks # 1 Rank stocks generated an annualized average return of +23.8% vs. +11.3% for the S&P 500 index).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 stocks here >>>
Check Lemonade’s historical EPS and Sales here>>>
Check Interactive Brokers’ historical EPS and Sales here>>>
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Shares of CommScope Holding Company, Inc. COMM and Wayfair Inc. W have surged 111.3% (versus the S&P 500’s 4.7% rise) and 55.2% (versus the S&P 500’s 4.8% rise), respectively, since their Zacks Recommendation was upgraded to Outperform on July 18 and July 21.
