the s  p 500 last week wrapped up the first half of the year and it was a real doozy for the market with the index posting its worst six month start to a year since 1970 after another troublesome quarter in the books one in which the s  p 500 fell roughly 16 we thought it would be helpful to look back and highlight what went right what went wrong and point out the common themes on both ends during the three months of march to june heres a snapshot of the best and worst stock performers in the investing clubs 33stock portfolio for the second quarter starting with our four top performers top performers taking the crown was eli lilly lly  with a gain of about 133 in the second quarter at a time when investors grew concerned about rising inflation and the impact of a fedmandated slowdown many circled back to largecap pharmaceutical stocks for their defensive qualities lilly owns one of the industrys most valuable pipelines it features the revolutionary diabetes drug mounjaro which is in trials for use to fight obesity as well and a potentially groundbreaking alzheimers treatment in the second quarter results from the phase 3 trial of mounjaro also called tirzepatide as an obesity treatment showed it was highly effective tolerable and superior to a competitor the runner up was humana hum  which pushed 76 higher in the quarter the company beat earnings expectations in the first quarter and raised its full year outlook in late april humana is a 100 domestic company meaning it gets all of its revenues from the united states concerns about a recession in europe due to the war the lockdowns in china over covid or foreign exchange headwinds from a strong dollar have nothing to do with this health insurer in third was constellation brands stz  which tacked on 12 in the quarter history shows beer sales have been resilient during economic downturns and constellation brands is a marketshare gainer in the category through its leading mexican beer portfolio  the company is profitable pays a dividend and repurchases stock the company bought back 13 billion worth of stock through the first four months of its fiscal year through june fourth was johnson  johnson jnj  which squeaked out a gain of 02 the companys pharmaceutical medical device and consumer product businesses make this a defensive growth company that investors want to buy or at least not sell when they are concerned about rising inflation and the impacts of a fedmandated slowdown j  j fits the profile of what we want to buy in this market—it is profitable pays a dividend has a pristine balance sheet and trades at reasonable multiple what are the common denominators of these four companies all are high quality profitable businesses that are among the leaders of their respective industries they have minimal economic sensitivity and stable earnings growth they all pay a dividend to shareholders these are the themes we have been harking to for months and in times of volatility worst performers the worst performer for the club was bausch health bhc  which plummeted 634 in the second quarter the frozen ipo market and a complete rethinking of valuations of equities due to higher interest rates caused bausch health to ipo bausch  lomb blco at a significantly reduced valuation leading to less cash proceeds then initially anticipated the company also shelved the ipo of solta medical due to unfavorable market conditions bausch healths heavy debt load presents challenges in a rising interest rate environment and economic slowdown second from the bottom was nvidia nvda which saw shares drop 444 amid a rout in semiconductor stocks the companys elevated pricetoearnings multiple in a market that clamped down on high valuations due to rising rates was a major drag on the stock so were concerns about the slowdown in the video gaming industry and a glut of graphic processor units gpus nvidia provided current quarter revenue outlook that was about 300 million below consensus estimates however this was attributed to nvidia stopping all product sales to russia and the covid related lockdowns in china marvell technology mrvl was our third worst performing stock  falling 393 marvell actually made it through the quarter without any major downgrades from the big sellside analysts or concerns from the industry about a slowdown in a major end market however all semiconductors struggled in the quarter and the good was tossed out with the bad it also didnt help that the stock entered the quarter with a lofty pricetoearnings multiple that compressed significantly as the fed raised rates the fourth worst stock was amazon amzn  which declined 348 in the quarter the company reported an ugly first quarter at the end of april and provided a weaker than expected outlook citing inflationary pressures in fuel and freight lower productivity due to overstaffing and higher costs tied to excess capacity from overexpanding the retail business also saw an impact from consumers shifting buying habits from goods to more experiential services like travel  leisure what are the common denominators here for nvidia marvell and amazon its all about expensive valuations lack of dividend and share repurchases to support the stock and economic sensitivity it didnt matter that nvidia provided only a slight guide down or that marvells outlook for the second quarter was higher than expected partly because it has very little consumer exposure they all got thrown out fortunately we recognized the need of selling technology semiconductor and other economically sensitive stocks early in the quarter when the most dovish members of the fed turned hawkish and trimmed our positions in all three of these stocks within the first two weeks of the quarter one big asterisk  bausch health was a special situation gone awry as the negatives of a weak balance sheet in a rising rate environmenteconomic slowdown and the frozen ipo market more than offset the defensiveness of health care when the economic future looks bleak investors prefer to move up in quality meaning they stick to companies with better balance sheets and cash flow generation it was a bad house that could not be saved because it was in a good neighborhood looking back  some of the names have changed from when we did this exercise three months ago after the first quarter ended however the themes were largely the same oil and health care outperformed and tech got crushed its worth noting that oil has plunged at the start of the third quarter  we think this collapse represents great value jim cramers charitable trust is long lly hum stz jnj bhc nvda mrvl and amzn  see here for a full list of the stocks as a subscriber to the cnbc investing club with jim cramer you will receive a trade alert before jim makes a trade jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trusts portfolio if jim has talked about a stock on cnbc tv he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade the above investing club information is subject to our terms and conditions and privacy policy  together with our disclaimer  no fiduciary obligation or duty exists or is created by virtue of your receipt of any information provided in connection with the investing club no specific outcome or profit is guaranteed