Apple and Meta helped Nasdaq rise in July

Apple and Meta stocks contributed the most to the July Nasdaq 100 rally, and since the start of the year, those stocks are up about 51% and more than 165%, respectively, writes Business Insider.

The rally in the shares of the 2 largest companies by capitalization is due to the hype around AI, which is still high.

In addition to the interest in AI, the rally is fueled by strong second-quarter earnings reports and optimism about next-generation products, including Apple's GPT and the new Threads social network.

Shares of these two companies helped the Nasdaq 100 rise 3.81% in July, pushing it up nearly 44% year-to-date.