In recent quarters tech stocks have generally outperformed, led by Nvidia with company revenue more than doubling to $30 billion, up 122% year-on-year. Needless to say, excitement regarding AI is partly driving this extraordinary performance. The magnificent seven, a group of stocks that picked up the US market leader baton from the FANGs, now display much stronger expected earnings growth than was anticipated by the broader market. Refresh this chart in your browser | Edit the chart in Datastream Given the market prominence of tech stocks, we might perceive them as responsible for the good S&P 500 performance of late. At around

Over the past decade the S&P 500 has seen a total return of 252.2% (12/31/09 through 12/17/19), which translates to a compound annual total return rate of 13.5%. Over that time two new sectors were added to the index. The real estate sector was separated from the financials sector and the communication services sector was created by removing the telecommunications services sector and pulling constituents from the information technology and consumer discretionary sectors. The information technology sector posted the greatest compound annual total return of 17.3%. Within the sector, the software & services (17.8%) and semiconductors & semiconductor equipment (17.3%)

The StarMine team has selected five U.S. companies, using the Eikon Screener, that we expect to beat earnings estimates, based on SmartEstimate® and Predicted Surprise data. Our North American selections for 2016 Q4 were 80% correct, which can be seen here. Historically, our picks have demonstrated an accuracy rate of about 75%, giving investors an edge ahead of earnings announcements. North American 17Q1 Positive Surprise Predictions SmartEstimates® aim to provide earnings forecasts that are more accurate than I/B/E/S Consensus Estimates, by putting more weight on the recent forecasts of top-rated analysts. When SmartEstimates® diverge significantly from Consensus, you can anticipate