S&P 500

Main article: US stock market

2025

Tech's share of index breaks 2000 dot-com crash record

Techno bubble: The S&P 500 rose 14% in 2025, but that growth is dangerously concentrated. Almost 45% of the yield was provided by only 5 giants (Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, etc.). The share of techs in the index broke the 2000 dot-com crash record.

The seven largest companies account for a record 36% of the S&P 500's market capitalization. Over the past 7 years, this figure has doubled and exceeds the 2000 dot-com bubble peak by 13 percentage points.

The same 7 companies provide 26% of the index's profits, which is close to an all-time high. Over the past 15 years, the share of market capitalization and profits of the largest companies went approximately synchronously until 2022.

In addition, the ten largest companies occupy 40% of the S&P 500 market capitalization (almost a record) and 32% of the index's profit - an absolute maximum.

Big tech companies continue to build influence.

Only 7% growth in the index depends on the profitability of companies, which is at its lowest in 100 years

Investors began to leave for Europe and Asia. For the first time since 2009, global markets (without the United States) overtook the S&P 500 in yields. The reason is the weak dollar and the search for alternatives.

As of December 2025, S&P 500 profitability is close to 100-year lows. The only time she was lower was during the dot-com bubble.

Bank of America analysts in June 2025 analyzed what determines the growth of the S&P 500 index and it turned out that until 2009, almost 50% of the growth of the American index was due to the profit of companies.

After the crisis and during the period of quantitative easing (QE), the impact of profits decreased to 23%, and the expansion of the Fed's balance sheet became the main driver - it accounted for more than half of the market growth.

Since 2022, the profits of companies explain only 7% of market movements.

According to Bank of America, the stock market is increasingly dependent on monetary policy and other factors, not fundamental results.

Markets are changing a lot - fundamental stock selection is supposedly not enough to show above-market returns.

2024

Bank forecasts have not come true for many years

The chart below shows the actual yield of the S&P 500 and the forecast from the leading banks for the beginning of each year since 2015. As you can see, the discrepancy between the forecast and the fact is extremely noticeable, this is especially noticeable over the past 3 years.

The index exceeded 5,000 points for the first time. The top ten account for a record 32%

On Feb. 9, 2024, the S&P 500 topped 5,000 amid a renewed rally in the tech sector and hopes that the Fed could soon cut rates, boosting the outlook for corporate profits.

The top ten holdings in the S&P 500 now account for more than 32% of the index - the highest concentration seen since 1980.

The top 5 stocks (Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet and Amazon account for 25% of the S&P 500's market value.

2023: Growth in IT paper demand due to neural network boom

Most of the growth in the S & P500 for the first half of 2023 is the rise in the price of shares of IT companies. For the first half of 2023, the main American stock index - S & P500 - rose more than 16%. It would seem that the economy is growing and everything is fine? Not quite so, because if you throw tech companies out of the index, the growth will be a modest 3.7%.

And some (important) sectors are in the red: for example, healthcare and power lost 1.9% each. So this is rather not economic growth, but a boom around neural networks, which has switched to the stock market.

2022

Down 20% by early October

Index's biggest first-half drop since 1970

As of June 21, 2022, the S&P 500 did not have such a bad first half of the year since the era of US President Nixon.

The S&P 500 declined, taking its losses in the three months of 2022 to nearly 5%, its most significant since March 2020.

2021

P/E ratio of top 10 S&P 500 stocks at dot-com bubble

By the end of 2021, the P/E ratio (price/earnings) of the top 10 S&P 500 stocks is near what marked the collapse of the dot-com bubble two decades ago.

High valuations combined with potential bond yield gains and the risk of slowing growth make stocks more vulnerable to correction.

And with the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 accounting for nearly a third of the index's total weight, any retreat by those giants could send the entire market tumbling.

Stocks with the best performance in the S&P 500 in 30 years and a string of records

On August 30, 2021, the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high for the 53rd time this year. It was reported that if this pace persists before the end of the year, it will surpass the 1995 record - 77 times.

By November 2021, the S&P 500 had risen 37% since Biden was elected president of the United States a year ago, setting a presidential record.

According to Charles Schwab UK, the growth in the index for the year was mainly due to the "rally of everything" after the spread of the COVID-19 vaccine than with any specific political decision.

2020: Collapse of capitalization by a third in 33 days amid the COVID-19 pandemic

February 2020 - March 2020 (33 days) - a rapid cutting of a third from capitalization, but 2020 had a very interesting feature. This is the fastest disposal in US history over 1/3 of capitalization amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the fastest recovery.

2019: Record-breaking bull market. S & P500 Index Dynamics

For December 2019, there is the longest bull market in history without a significant correction.

2009: Most crushing collapse since 1930 by 56.8% in 517 days

October 2007 - March 2009 (517 days, although the main trigger was from September 2008 and took six months) - the most crushing collapse since 1930 by 56.8%.

2002: Prolonged fall after dot-com bubble by 49.1%

March 2000 - September 2002 (929 days) - a protracted fall after the dot-com bubble by 49.1%.

1987: High-speed crash 33.5% in 101 days

August 1987 - December 1987 (101 days) - a high-speed crash by 33.5%.

1982: Down 27% in 622 days

November 1980 - August 1982 (622 days) - a decrease of 27%.

1974: 48.2% collapse

January 1973 - October 1974 (530 days) - a collapse of 48.2%.

See also

• Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) - stock index on the 30 largest companies USA