Many of the big winners included in the S&P 500 index from 2020 are companies firmly rooted in the technology sector. The obvious big winner is Tesla, whose share price increased by 7.5 times for a variety of reasons. While the increase in Tesla stocks (arguably) does not have a direct connection to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a look at many of the other companies in this list indicates a clear link. Online retailers such as Amazon and Etsy saw large increases in their stock price, along with companies who provide crucial parts of infrastructure necessary for online shopping such as PayPal and FedEx. Given the closure of brick and mortar stores in many parts of the world due to the pandemic, the causation here is evident. Similarly, computer chip manufactures NVIDIA and AMD saw returns of 100 percent or more, likely due both to the shift to remote working necessitated by the pandemic, as well as the global increase in playing video games resulting from the unavailability of many other activities.

As of November 14, 2021, all S&P 500 sector indices had recovered to levels above those of January 2020, prior to full economic effects of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic taking hold. However, different sectors recovered at different rates to sit at widely different levels above their pre-pandemic levels. This suggests that the effect of the coronavirus on financial markets in the United States is directly affected by how the virus has impacted various parts of the underlying economy. Which industry performed the best during the coronavirus pandemic? Companies operating in the information technology (IT) sector have been the clear winners from the pandemic, with the IT S&P 500 sector index sitting at almost ** percent above early 2020 levels as of November 2021. This is perhaps not surprising given this industry includes some of the companies who benefitted the most from the pandemic such as ************** and *******. The reason for these companies’ success is clear – as shops were shuttered and social gatherings heavily restricted due to the pandemic, online services such shopping and video streaming were in high demand. The success of the IT sector is also reflected in the performance of global share markets during the coronavirus pandemic, with tech-heavy NASDAQ being the best performing major market worldwide. Which industry performed the worst during the pandemic? Conversely, energy companies fared the worst during the pandemic, with the S&P 500 sector index value sitting below its early 2020 value as late as July 2021. Since then it has somewhat recovered, and was around ** percent above January 2020 levels as of October 2021. This reflects the fact that many oil companies were among the share prices suffering the largest declines over 2020. A primary driver for this was falling demand for fuel in line with the reduction in tourism and commuting caused by lockdowns all over the world. However, as increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates throughout 2021 led to lockdowns being lifted and global tourism reopening, demand has again risen - reflected by the recent increase in the S&P 500 energy index.

Context

According to Investopedia:

FAANG is an acronym referring to the stocks of the five most popular and best-performing American technology companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google). In addition to being widely known among consumers, the five FAANG stocks are among the largest companies in the world, with a combined market capitalization of over $4.1 trillion as of January 2020. Some have raised concerns that the FAANG stocks may be in the midst of a bubble, whereas others argue that their growth is justified by the stellar financial and operational performance they have shown in recent years.

Regardless of the myriad of accolades, comments, and even controversies surrounding the FAANG stocks, they are nevertheless a data science/mining treasure and the bellwether of the NASDAQ index, if not the entire US technology sector.

This Kaggle dataset contains over 20 years of daily historical data for the five FAANG constituents, as retrieved from this free stock API. It is a public-domain dataset that gives the data science practitioners (a.k.a., you!) the full flexibility to derive second-order insights and investment heuristics from it.

Content

Over 20 years of daily historical data (2000-01-01 to 2020-10-01) for the five FAANG stocks: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet/Google. For completeness, both raw and adjusted prices are included, along with historical split events and dividend payouts (check out here for how stock market API providers perform price adjustments).

Acknowledgements

Data source: https://www.alphavantage.co/

Analysis of ‘MasterCard Stock Data - Latest and Updated’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/kalilurrahman/mastercard-stock-data-latest-and-updated on 12 November 2021.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Mastercard_2019_logo.svg/195px-Mastercard_2019_logo.svg.png" alt="Mastercard">

Mastercard Inc. (stylized as MasterCard from 1979 to 2016 and MasterCard since 2016) is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the Mastercard International Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York. The Global Operations Headquarters is located in O'Fallon, Missouri, a municipality of St. Charles County, Missouri. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the "Mastercard" brand debit, credit, and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, Mastercard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that issue its branded cards.

Mastercard, originally known as Interbank from 1966 to 1969 and Master Charge from 1969 to 1979, was created by an alliance of several regional bank card associations in response to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became the Visa credit card issued by Visa Inc.

Mastercard is one of the best performing stocks of the decade of 2011-2020

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

The main stock market index of United States, the US500, rose to 6313 points on July 21, 2025, gaining 0.25% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 4.77% and is up 13.45% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from United States. United States Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

View data of the S&P 500, an index of the stocks of 500 leading companies in the US economy, which provides a gauge of the U.S. equity market.

Amazon.com, Inc. was the best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index in the fourth quarter of 2024. Over that period, its stock price rose more than **** percent. In 2020, most companies lost value in the first quarter as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but had largely recovered by the mid-year point. What is the DJIA? The DJIA is an index of 30 leading companies in the United States. Founded it 1885, it is one of the most indicators of sentiments on the financial markets. Many analysts follow indices such as the DJIA or the S&P 500 on a monthly or daily basis to have a better idea of how the stock market is doing at a given moment. The benefit of tracking markets The business cycle refers to the idea that the economy goes through a cyclic process of expansion and contraction. Stock market indices such as the DJIA can provide information on the timing of the next contraction, or recession. Investors try to use this and other data to predict the performance of sectors, or even single stocks. Of course, there is always a risk of choosing the stocks which don’t perform well.

The latest closing stock price for Microsoft as of June 18, 2025 is 480.24. An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Microsoft stock at the IPO in 1986 would have $8,056,718 today, roughly 8,057 times their original investment - a 25.94% compound annual growth rate over 39 years. The all-time high Microsoft stock closing price was 480.24 on June 18, 2025. The Microsoft 52-week high stock price is 481.00, which is 0.2% above the current share price. The Microsoft 52-week low stock price is 344.79, which is 28.2% below the current share price. The average Microsoft stock price for the last 52 weeks is 422.77. For more information on how our historical price data is adjusted see the Stock Price Adjustment Guide.

China's main stock market index, the SHANGHAI, rose to 3534 points on July 18, 2025, gaining 0.50% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 5.13% and is up 18.52% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from China. China Shanghai Composite Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

While the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused all major stock market indices to fall sharply in March 2020, both the extent of the decline at this time, and the shape of the subsequent recovery, have varied greatly. For example, on March 15, 2020, major European markets and traditional stocks in the United States had shed around 40 percent of their value compared to January 5, 2020. However, Asian markets and the NASDAQ Composite Index only shed around 20 to 25 percent of their value. A similar story can be seen with the post-coronavirus recovery. As of November 14, 2021 the NASDAQ composite index value was around 65 percent higher than in January 2020, while most other markets were only between 20 and 40 percent higher.

Why did the NASDAQ recover the quickest?

Based in New York City, the NASDAQ is famously considered a proxy for the technology industry as many of the world’s largest technology industries choose to list there. And it just so happens that technology was the sector to perform the best during the coronavirus pandemic. Accordingly, many of the largest companies who benefitted the most from the pandemic such as Amazon, PayPal and Netflix, are listed on the NADSAQ, helping it to recover the fastest of the major stock exchanges worldwide.

Which markets suffered the most?

The energy sector was the worst hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, oil companies share prices suffered large declines over 2020 as demand for oil plummeted while workers found themselves no longer needing to commute, and the tourism industry ground to a halt. In addition, overall share prices in two major stock exchanges – the London Stock Exchange (as represented by the FTSE 100 index) and Hong Kong (as represented by the Hang Seng index) – have notably recovered slower than other major exchanges. However, in both these, the underlying issue behind the slower recovery likely has more to do with political events unrelated to the coronavirus than it does with the pandemic – namely Brexit and general political unrest, respectively.

The value of the DJIA index amounted to ****** at the end of June 2025, up from ********* at the end of March 2020. Global panic about the coronavirus epidemic caused the drop in March 2020, which was the worst drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average index – additional information The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is a price-weighted average of 30 of the largest American publicly traded companies on New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and includes companies like Goldman Sachs, IBM and Walt Disney. This index is considered to be a barometer of the state of the American economy. DJIA index was created in 1986 by Charles Dow. Along with the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices, it is amongst the most well-known and used stock indexes in the world. The year that the 2018 financial crisis unfolded was one of the worst years of the Dow. It was also in 2008 that some of the largest ever recorded losses of the Dow Jones Index based on single-day points were registered. On September 29, 2008, for instance, the Dow had a loss of ****** points, one of the largest single-day losses of all times. The best years in the history of the index still are 1915, when the index value increased by ***** percent in one year, and 1933, year when the index registered a growth of ***** percent.

Interactive historical chart showing the daily level of the CBOE VIX Volatility Index back to 1990. The VIX index measures the expectation of stock market volatility over the next 30 days implied by S&P 500 index options.

Prices for United States Stock Market Index (US30) including live quotes, historical charts and news. United States Stock Market Index (US30) was last updated by Trading Economics this July 21 of 2025.

Canada's main stock market index, the TSX, rose to 27317 points on July 21, 2025, gaining 0.01% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 2.66% and is up 19.43% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Canada. Canada Stock Market Index (TSX) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

Venezuela's main stock market index, the IBC, rose to 442795 points on July 18, 2025, gaining 6.46% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 19.83% and is up 419.33% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Venezuela. Venezuela Stock Market (IBVC) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

France's main stock market index, the FR40, rose to 7823 points on July 18, 2025, gaining 0.01% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 3.56% and is up 3.82% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from France. France Stock Market Index (FR40) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

Nigeria's main stock market index, the NSE-All Share, rose to 131586 points on July 18, 2025, gaining 1.00% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 11.64% and is up 30.88% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Nigeria. Nigeria Stock Market NSE - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

New Zealand's main stock market index, the NZX 50, fell to 12880 points on July 18, 2025, losing 0.19% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 2.48% and is up 5.17% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from New Zealand. New Zealand Stock Market (NZX 50) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

Hong Kong's main stock market index, the HK50, rose to 24977 points on July 21, 2025, gaining 0.61% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 5.44% and is up 41.63% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Hong Kong. Hong Kong Stock Market Index (HK50) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

The price of Tesla shares traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange remained rather stable between July 2010 and January 2020. With the beginning of 2020, the price of Tesla share increased dramatically and stood at ****** U.S. dollars per share in November 2021. Since then, the price of Tesla share fluctuated significantly and reached its peak at ****** U.S. dollars per share in December 2024, before falling dramatically in February 2025. Why did Tesla's stock value go up in 2020? Despite the effects of the pandemic, Tesla share prices experienced a massive increase in 2020. Tesla kept increasing its output levels throughout the year, except for the second quarter, and released its new vehicle Tesla Model Y. Additionally, when the company was added to the S&P 500 index in August 2020, it instilled further trust in investors. In 2020, Tesla was the top-performing stock on the S&P 500 index, and two years later, in 2024, it ranked among the ten largest companies on the index by market capitalization. Steady growth in the last decade Founded in 2003, Tesla primarily focuses on designing and producing electric vehicles, as well as energy generation and storage systems. Since then, Tesla's revenue has steadily increased, reaching nearly ** million U.S. dollars in 2024. Most of the revenue came from automotive sales in 2024. Tesla's first electric car, the Roadster, was sold between 2008 and 2012. Currently, the company offers four primary electric vehicles: Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X.