Record highs for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average make for good headlines but U.S. mid-cap stocks have actually been the best performers since the financial crisis.
SPDR S&P MidCap 400 (NYSEArca: MDY) is up about 22% year to date, outperforming the S&P 500 by 2 percentage points, according to Morningstar.
In fact, the mid-cap ETF has outperformed the S&P 500 in five of the past six calendar years. [‘Impressive’ Returns of Mid-Cap ETFs Get Lost in the Mix]
“The most recent close for the S&P 500 is 1,692.39 — it has retraced 114.3% of its financial crisis bear market decline,” according to chartoftheday.com.
The Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, S&P MidCap 400 and small-cap Russell 2000 have erased all of the losses they suffered during the credit crisis.
“However, it has been the often overlooked S&P 400 that has been the star performer. The S&P 400 has recouped over 160% of its financial crisis decline — a very impressive performance,” according to the website.
Other ETFs for mid-caps include iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap (NYSEArca: IJH), Vanguard Mid-Cap (NYSEArca: VO), iShares Russell Mid-Cap (NYSEArca: IWR) and Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap (NYSEArca: SCHM).
