The best and worst performers in the first half of 2026
The mood music at the start of the year is certainly very much different to what it is now as we approach the second half of the year. In January, everyone and anyone was raving about precious metals and we looked on course for more Fed rate cuts with US president Trump set to get his way in replacing Powell at the helm.
Besides that, the AI trade was in full swing more or less. There were some minor concerns in late 2025 but big tech showed much resilience overall up until last month.
Fast forward to today, what a completely different landscape it is for markets.
So, who were the best performers in the first half of the year?
The big standout is of course South Korea's KOSPI index. There are no superlatives for 100% gains in six months, effectively doubling in value. The AI trade is the key driver in all of this, with a historic surge in memory-chip heavyweights like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Even after the challenges in June, it's been quite the parabolic rise to the top for South Korea's main benchmark index.
The tech and semiconductor surge this year also helped to see Taiwan's TAIEX index surge by 59% and Japan's Nikkei 225 index also surging by over 39% in the first half of 2026.
The global thirst for AI server architecture and hardware helped a lot with the former, with Taiwan's main benchmark index driven by TSMC especially, which gained by over 55% in the first six months of the year. As for the Nikkei, the surging rally in tech definitely helped but also a freefalling Japanese yen currency. The massive decline in the yen has also made shares of Japanese exporters look extraordinarily lucrative to foreign buyers.
And despite an immense drop in the past two months, oil prices are still one of the better performers so far this year. WTI crude saw over 20% gains in the first six months of 2026, in spite of a sharp drop of over 40% since the March peak. We all know the story here with the US-Iran conflict definitely changing the outlook for the oil market, which looked set for a massive supply glut before this.
Besides the above, US stocks also fared well as big tech rode the wave of earnings momentum to outperform in the first half of 2026. The Nasdaq posted 13% gains while the S&P 500 locked in 9.5% gains in posting another resilient and strong showing so far this year.
That being said, it was a rather turbulent last one month for big tech especially. While Nvidia managed to still hold up, the rest of the Magnificent Seven suffered to post their worst collective month on record in June. Hyperscalers are being punished as investors are in the show me the money phase in demanding results to back the tens of billions on AI capital expenditures.
Other than that, the first half of the year was also kind to the likes of the US dollar, Australian dollar, and copper.
So, what about the worst performers in the first six months of 2026?
The most notable one is arguably Bitcoin, which fell by some 33% in a plunge back below $60,000. In June, there was a record-breaking $4.06 billion in net outflows from US spot ETFs alone. And that certainly did not help with the crypto market sentiment, which was already down in the dumps for the better part of the year.
One major argument point is perhaps cryptocurrencies are giving way for a meteoric rise in another potential asset class. From before: Of cryptocurrencies and collectibles
Then, we also have precious metals being among the worst performers too. What a difference five months can make, eh?
Gold itself is down nearly 8% in the first half of the year with silver down by roughly 19%. And things look like they will get worse before getting any better for precious metals at this point.
The US-Iran conflict knocked down leveraged trades and with a more hawkish Fed outlook now, it is creating some big headwinds for gold and silver to go up against. That especially after the already sharp technical correction in early February.
Besides that, the likes of platinum and palladium are also suffering with the former being down by 24% and the latter down by 25% in the first half of the year.
In terms of major currencies, the Japanese yen is of course the standout with USD/JPY now rising to a 40-year high. And that comes despite Tokyo officials intervening in late April to try and stop the bleeding.
While USD/JPY only saw 3.6% gains in the first half of the year, it is best to be reminded that the currency pair is up roughly 10% since the start of October last year when Japan prime minister Takaichi took office.
Other than that, "sell Indonesia" was the other main theme sweeping across desks globally amid a capital flight out of the country. Domestic politics have never been messier and investors have lost almost all confidence over president Prabowo Subianto's aggressive moves to consolidate political power.
That all eventually led to MSCI freezing Indonesia's stocks in its indexes and threatened a downgrade to "Frontier" status. The Jakarta Composite index ended the first half of the year down some 34% with the Indonesian rupiah currency also taking the crown as the worst performing Asian currency (and arguably the worst emerging market currency) so far this year.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.提供 MainLink：Investinglive RSS Breaking News Feed
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