Q1 2013: Pretty Darn Good (Though Not For Cliffs, Penney or Apple)

By Sam Mamudi

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.25% in the year’s first quarter, a period in which it broke an all-time high dating back to 2007. It was also the best Q1 performance in 15 years, since the benchmark rose 11.27% in 1998, and was the best quarterly performance since the fourth quarter of 2011, according to WSJ Markets Data Group.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index also set a record closing high (though is still short of its intraday record) — but only just, breaking the the 2007 mark on the quarter’s last day of trading. Somewhat weighed down by Apple (AAPL) — which fell 17% in the quarter — the index lagged the Dow incontested House seats, but let's look at the two major statewide races through the lens of primary turnout. First, in the US Senate race, DC has been buzzing about Democrat Robert "Beto" O'Rourke's fundraising numbers, boosted by out-of-state liberals. When voters went to the polls, he underperformed in many important areas of the state, and toward the end of the evening, this was the state of play:

Ted Cruz currently has more votes in an *uncontested* GOP primary than every Democratic candidate in the Dem TX-SEN primary combined.



Folks, Cruz is going to win in November. Unless he's been found Roy Moore-ing after 13 year olds in the local shopping mall. — Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) March 7, 2018



Cruz did not have a serious primary opponent. Republicans had little motivation to