The S 500 had an excellent first half of 2024, producing a 15.3% total return for investors in that six-month period. And while some of the best performing components in the market, such as AI-focused tech stocks, are well-known, you might be surprised to learn that most big banks also delivered market-beating returns.

In the first half of 2024, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) delivered total returns of 19.7%, 18.8%, and 20.3%, respectively. But I think they could outperform for the rest of 2024 and into 2025 as well.

To be sure, a fair amount of the outperformance can be attributed to a rebound from a very turbulent 2023 for the banking industry. Investors turned extremely cautious on the banks in the wake of several high-profile bank failures, and while the big banks fared better than most, 2023 was generally a year of underperformance (with the exception of JPMorgan Chase, but that's a whole different story).

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Source Fool.com