The Standard and Poor’s 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of December 31, 2020, more than $5.4 trillion was invested in assets tied to the performance of the index.
The S&P 500 index is a free-float weighted/capitalization-weighted index.
As of August 31, 2022, the nine largest companies on the list of S&P 500 companies accounted for 27.8% of the market capitalization of the index and were, in order of highest to lowest weighting:
Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, UnitedHealth Group, Johnson & Johnson, and ExxonMobil. The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.
The index is one of the factors in the computation of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, used to forecast the direction of the economy.
Stock strategy
The index is associated with many ticker symbols, including ^GSPC, .INX and $SPX, depending on the market or website.
Constituents: 503
Exchanges: NYSE; NASDAQ; Cboe BZX Exchange
Foundation: March 4, 1957; 66 years ago
Market cap: US$33.8 trillion (as of December 31, 2022)
Related indices: S&P 1500; S&P Global 1200; S&P 100
Trading symbol: ^GSPC; $SPX; SPX.SPX.INX
Weighting method: Free-float capitalization-weighted
