The top 10 S&P 500 stock winners since Election Day

Many major US companies have seen their stocks swell since the presidential election.

The 10 best performing stocks in Standard & Poor's 500 Index It has seen returns of 18% or more since Election Day, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which analyzed returns based on closing prices from Nov. 5 to Nov. 20.

Two companies – AXON Enterprise (AXON), which provides law enforcement technology, and Tesla (TSLA), the electric car maker led by Elon Musk, an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump — saw its shares rise more than 35%, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

By contrast, the S&P 500 rose about 2% over the same period.

Investors should be cautious about buying individual stocks based on short-term consolidations, said Jeremy Goldberg, a certified financial planner, portfolio manager and research analyst at Professional Advisory Services, Inc., ranked No. 37 on CNBC's annual list of financial advisors.

“It's usually a bad idea,” Goldberg said. “Momentum is a powerful force in the market, but relying solely on short-term price movements as an investment strategy is risky.”

Goldberg said investors must understand what is driving this movement and whether the factors driving the stock price higher are sustainable.

Investment experts said the higher stock returns were driven in part by the Trump administration's policy positions that are expected to benefit some companies and industries.

Jacob Manoukian, head of US investment strategy at private bank JPMorgan, said deregulation and a softer outlook on mergers and acquisitions are two “key” themes driving bullish sentiment after Trump's win.

In addition, experts said US regulators are likely to be less stringent about allowing potential mergers during Trump's second term.

Companies in the streaming ecosystem — like Warner Bros. Discovery(WBD), which owns the Max streaming service, and The Walt Disney Company, which owns Disney+ (Dis) – They may benefit from looser rules around mergers, they say.

For some stocks, the outperformance was tied to rosy quarterly earnings results or guidance some companies announced around or after Election Day, experts said.

Many of these companies cited artificial intelligence as a growth driver.

For example, Palantir Technologies (Belter(, due to “unprecedented” demand for its AI platform in the third quarter, which helped deliver “exceptionally strong” earnings, Treasurer and CFO David Glazer told investors on November 4.

Likewise, Exxon beat analyst estimates in its Nov. 7 earnings results, as officials touted its “AI era plan” and raised earnings guidance, Goldberg said.

Shares of Axon and Palantir rose 38% and 22%, respectively, from Nov. 5 to Nov. 20, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Experts said some companies benefited from a combination of policies and profits.

Let's take Vistra Corp. (VST), for example, the power supply. The company's stock jumped 27% after Election Day.

Vistra is in talks with large data centers — or “hyperscalers” — in Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio to build or modernize gas and nuclear plants, Stacy Dorey, Vistra's chief strategy and sustainability officer, said on the company's third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 7.

Technology companies are building more and more of these data centers to fuel the AI ​​revolution, and need to supply increasing amounts of energy to operate them.

Then there's the Elon Musk factor.

Tesla stock received an “Elon Musk bonus” after Trump's victory, said Goldberg of Professional Advisory Services.

Musk, CEO of Tesla, was a prominent supporter of Trump's campaign. Trump appointed him to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency. Shares of the electric car maker rose 14% the day after the election, and nearly 30% by the end of the week.

But experts said Tesla shares have additional tailwinds.

For example, Trump wants to end the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. It is expected that canceling this policy will harm Tesla's competitors in the field of electric cars.

Tesla is also developing self-driving vehicle technology. On Tesla's recent earnings call, Musk said he would use his influence in the Trump administration to create a “federal approval process for self-driving vehicles.”