S&P 500

For a list of S&P 500 companies, see List of S&P 500 companies.

S&P 500

S&P 500 Index from 1970 to 2023
Foundation	March 4, 1957; 68 years ago (1957-03-04)[1]
Operator	S&P Dow Jones Indices[2]
Exchanges	NYSE Nasdaq Cboe BZX Exchange
Trading symbol	^GSPC $SPX SPX .SPX .INX
Constituents	503[2]
Type	Large-cap[2]
Market cap	US$52.614 trillion (as of May 30, 2025)
Weighting method	Free-float capitalization-weighted[3]
Related indices	S&P 1500 S&P Global 1200 S&P 100
Website	spglobal.com/sp-500

Global Industry Classification Standard of components of the S&P 500 by market capitalization as of June 2, 2025[4]

1. Energy (3.02%)
2. Materials (1.94%)
3. Industrials (8.66%)
4. Consumer Discretionary (10.6%)
5. Consumer Staples (5.88%)
6. Healthcare (9.55%)
7. Financials (14.23%)
8. Information Technology (31.7%)
9. Communication Services (9.62%)
10. Utilities (2.48%)
11. Real Estate (2.13%)

A linear chart of the S&P 500 daily closing values from January 3, 1950, to February 19, 2016

A logarithmic chart of the S&P 500 index daily closing values from January 3, 1950, to February 19, 2016

A daily volume chart of the S&P 500 index from January 3, 1950, to February 19, 2016

Though there is large variability in month-to-month changes in the S&P 500 index (gray lines), a seasonal pattern emerges when the monthly change values are averaged (bold line).[5]

S&P 500 Max Min Chart to Jan 2025 with Trend, with plots less Inflation, and comparison plots

The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500,[6] is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and includes approximately 80% of the total market capitalization of U.S. public companies, with an aggregate market cap of more than $49.8 trillion as of March 31, 2025.[2]

The S&P 500 index is a Free-float weighted/capitalization-weighted index. As of April 2025, the ten largest companies on the list of S&P 500 companies accounted for approximately 35% of the market capitalization of the index and were, in order of highest to lowest weighting: Apple (6.4%), Microsoft (6.2%), Nvidia (6.0%), Amazon.com (3.8%), Alphabet (3.6%, including both class A & C shares), Meta Platforms (2.7%), Berkshire Hathaway (2.0%), Broadcom (1.8%), Tesla (1.6%), and JPMorgan Chase (1.4%).[4] The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.[7] Companies in the S&P 500 derive a collective 72% of revenues from the United States and 28% from other countries.[8]

The index is one of the factors in computation of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, used to forecast the direction of the economy.[9] The index is associated with many ticker symbols, including ^GSPC,[10] .INX,[11] and SPX, depending on market or website.[12] The S&P 500 is maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a joint venture majority-owned by S&P Global, and its components are selected by a committee.[3]

Investing in the S&P 500

Mutual and exchange-traded funds

Index funds, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), can replicate, before fees and expenses, the performance of the index by holding the same stocks as the index in the same proportions. ETFs that replicate the performance of the index are issued by The Vanguard Group (NYSE Arca: VOO), iShares (NYSE Arca: IVV), and State Street Corporation (SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, NYSE Arca: SPY and NYSE Arca: SPLG). The most liquid based on average daily volume is (NYSE Arca: SPY), although SPY has a higher annual expense ratio of 0.09% compared to 0.03% for VOO and IVV, and 0.02% for SPLG. Mutual funds that track the index are offered by Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, and Charles Schwab Corporation.[13][14]

Direxion offers leveraged ETFs which attempt to produce three times the daily return of either investing in (NYSE Arca: SPXL) or shorting (NYSE Arca: SPXS) the S&P 500 index.[15] ProShares offers 2x daily return (NYSE Arca: SSO) and 3x daily return (NYSE Arca: UPRO).

Derivatives

In the derivatives market, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) offers futures contracts that track the index and trade on the exchange floor in an open outcry auction, or on CME's Globex platform, and are the exchange's most popular product. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) offers options on the S&P 500 index as well as on S&P 500 index ETFs, inverse ETFs, and leveraged ETFs.

History

In 1860, Henry Varnum Poor formed Poor's Publishing, which published an investor's guide to the railroad industry.[16] In 1923, Standard Statistics Company (founded in 1906 as the Standard Statistics Bureau) began rating mortgage bonds[16] and developed its first stock market index consisting of the stocks of 233 U.S. companies, computed weekly.[1] Three years later, it developed a 90-stock index, computed daily.[1] In 1941, Poor's Publishing merged with Standard Statistics Company to form Standard & Poor's.[16][17]

On Monday, March 4, 1957, the index was expanded to its current extent of 500 companies and was renamed the S&P 500 Stock Composite Index.[1] In 1962, Ultronic Systems became the compiler of the S&P indices including the S&P 500 Stock Composite Index, the 425 Stock Industrial Index, the 50 Stock Utility Index, and the 25 Stock Rail Index.[18] On August 31, 1976, The Vanguard Group offered the first mutual fund to retail investors that tracked the index.[1] On April 21, 1982, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange began trading futures based on the index.[1] On July 1, 1983, Chicago Board Options Exchange began trading options based on the index.[1] Beginning in 1986, the index value was updated every 15 seconds, or 1,559 times per trading day, with price updates disseminated by Reuters. Prior to this, it had been updated once every minute.[19]

On January 22, 1993, the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts exchange-traded fund issued by State Street Corporation began trading.[1] On September 9, 1997, CME Group introduced the S&P E-mini futures contract.[1] In 2005, the index transitioned to a public float-adjusted capitalization-weighting.[20] Friday, September 17, 2021, was the final trading date for the original SP big contract which began trading in 1982.[21]

Selection criteria

Like other indices managed by S&P Dow Jones Indices, but unlike indices such as the Russell 1000 Index which are strictly rule-based, the components of the S&P 500 index are selected by a committee. When considering the eligibility of a new addition, the committee assesses the company's merit using the following primary criteria:[3]

1. Market capitalization - Market capitalization must be greater than or equal to US$20.5 billion (effective on January 2, 2025).[22] These market cap eligibility criteria are for addition to an index, not for continued membership. As a result, an index constituent that appears to violate criteria for addition to that index is not removed unless ongoing conditions warrant an index change.[22]
2. Market liquidity and public float – Annual dollar value traded to float-adjusted market capitalization is greater than 0.75.[23]
3. Volume – Minimum monthly trading volume of 250,000 shares in each of the six months leading up to the evaluation date
4. Stock exchange – Must be publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (including NYSE Arca or NYSE American), Nasdaq (Nasdaq Global Select Market, Nasdaq Select Market or the Nasdaq Capital Market) or Cboe (Cboe BZX, Cboe BYX, Cboe EDGA or Cboe EDGX).
5. Domicile – The company must have its primary listing on a U.S. exchange.[24]
6. Securities that are ineligible for inclusion in the index are limited partnerships, master limited partnerships and their investment trust units, OTC Bulletin Board issues, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, Exchange-traded notes, royalty trusts, tracking stocks, preferred stock, unit trusts, equity warrants, convertible bonds, investment trusts, American depositary receipts, and American depositary shares.[3]

A stock may rise in value when it is added to the index since index funds must purchase that stock to continue tracking the index.[25][26]

A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in October 2021 alleged that companies' purchases of ratings services from S&P Global appear to improve their chance of entering the S&P 500 index, even if they are not the best fit per the rules.[27][28]

Performance

See also: Closing milestones of the S&P 500 and List of recessions in the United States

S&P 500 Buybacks and Dividends (quarterly)
  Stock buyback
  Dividends

S&P 500 annual returns

Since its inception in 1926, the index's compound annual growth rate—including dividends—has been approximately 9.8% (6% after inflation), with the standard deviation of the return, calculated on a monthly basis, over the same time period being 20.81%. While the index has declined in several years by over 30%,[29] it has posted annual increases 70% of the time,[30] with 5% of all trading days resulting in record highs.[31]

Returns are generally quoted as price returns (excluding returns from dividends). However, they can also be quoted as total return, which includes returns from dividends and the reinvestment thereof, and "net total return", which reflects the effects of dividend reinvestment after the deduction of withholding tax.[2]

Show / Hide table

Year	Change in Index	Total Annual Return, including dividends	Value of $1.00 invested on January 1, 1970	Annualized Return over
				5 years	10 years	15 years	20 years	25 years
1961	23.13%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	-11.81%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1963	18.89%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	12.97%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1965	9.06%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	-13.09%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1967	20.09%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	7.66%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1969	-11.36%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	0.10%	4.01%	$1.04	-	-	-	-	-
1971	10.79%	14.31%	$1.19	-	-	-	-	-
1972	15.63%	18.98%	$1.41	-	-	-	-	-
1973	−17.37%	−14.66%	$1.21	-	-	-	-	-
1974	−29.72%	−26.47%	$0.89	−2.35%	-	-	-	-
1975	31.55%	37.20%	$1.22	3.21%	-	-	-	-
1976	19.15%	23.84%	$1.51	4.87%	-	-	-	-
1977	−11.50%	−7.18%	$1.40	−0.21%	-	-	-	-
1978	1.06%	6.56%	$1.49	4.32%	-	-	-	-
1979	12.31%	18.44%	$1.77	14.76%	5.86%	-	-	-
1980	25.77%	32.50%	$2.34	13.96%	8.45%	-	-	-
1981	−9.73%	−4.92%	$2.23	8.10%	6.47%	-	-	-
1982	14.76%	21.55%	$2.71	14.09%	6.70%	-	-	-
1983	17.27%	22.56%	$3.32	17.32%	10.63%	-	-	-
1984	1.40%	6.27%	$3.52	14.81%	14.78%	8.76%	-	-
1985	26.33%	31.73%	$4.64	14.67%	14.32%	10.49%	-	-
1986	14.62%	18.67%	$5.51	19.87%	13.83%	10.76%	-	-
1987	2.03%	5.25%	$5.80	16.47%	15.27%	9.86%	-	-
1988	12.40%	16.61%	$6.76	15.31%	16.31%	12.17%	-	-
1989	27.25%	31.69%	$8.90	20.37%	17.55%	16.61%	11.55%	-
1990	−6.56%	−3.10%	$8.63	13.20%	13.93%	13.94%	11.16%	-
1991	26.31%	30.47%	$11.26	15.36%	17.59%	14.34%	11.90%	-
1992	4.46%	7.62%	$12.11	15.88%	16.17%	15.47%	11.34%	-
1993	7.06%	10.08%	$13.33	14.55%	14.93%	15.72%	12.76%	-
1994	−1.54%	1.32%	$13.51	8.70%	14.38%	14.52%	14.58%	10.98%
1995	34.11%	37.58%	$18.59	16.59%	14.88%	14.81%	14.60%	12.22%
1996	20.26%	22.96%	$22.86	15.22%	15.29%	16.80%	14.56%	12.55%
1997	31.01%	33.36%	$30.48	20.27%	18.05%	17.52%	16.65%	13.07%
1998	26.67%	28.58%	$39.19	24.06%	19.21%	17.90%	17.75%	14.94%
1999	19.53%	21.04%	$47.44	28.56%	18.21%	18.93%	17.88%	17.25%
2000	−10.14%	−9.10%	$43.12	18.33%	17.46%	16.02%	15.68%	15.34%
2001	−13.04%	−11.89%	$37.99	10.70%	12.94%	13.74%	15.24%	13.78%
2002	−23.37%	−22.10%	$29.60	−0.59%	9.34%	11.48%	12.71%	12.98%
2003	26.38%	28.68%	$38.09	−0.57%	11.07%	12.22%	12.98%	13.84%
2004	8.99%	10.88%	$42.23	−2.30%	12.07%	10.94%	13.22%	13.54%
2005	3.00%	4.91%	$44.30	0.54%	9.07%	11.52%	11.94%	12.48%
2006	13.62%	15.79%	$51.30	6.19%	8.42%	10.64%	11.80%	13.37%
2007	3.53%	5.49%	$54.12	12.83%	5.91%	10.49%	11.82%	12.73%
2008	−38.49%	−37.00%	$34.09	−2.19%	−1.38%	6.46%	8.43%	9.77%
2009	23.45%	26.46%	$43.11	0.41%	−0.95%	8.04%	8.21%	10.54%
2010	12.78%	15.06%	$49.61	2.29%	1.41%	6.76%	9.14%	9.94%
2011	-0.00%	2.11%	$50.65	−0.25%	2.92%	5.45%	7.81%	9.28%
2012	13.41%	16.00%	$58.76	1.66%	7.10%	4.47%	8.22%	9.71%
2013	29.60%	32.39%	$77.79	17.94%	7.40%	4.68%	9.22%	10.26%
2014	11.39%	13.69%	$88.44	15.45%	7.67%	4.24%	9.85%	9.62%
2015	−0.73%	1.38%	$89.66	12.57%	7.30%	5.00%	8.19%	9.82%
2016	9.54%	11.96%	$100.38	14.66%	6.94%	6.69%	7.68%	9.15%
2017	19.42%	21.83%	$122.30	15.79%	8.49%	9.92%	7.19%	9.69%
2018	−6.24%	−4.38%	$116.94	8.49%	13.12%	7.77%	5.62%	9.07%
2019	28.88%	31.49%	$153.76	11.70%	13.56%	9.00%	6.06%	10.22%
2020	16.26%	18.40%	$182.06	15.22%	13.89%	9.88%	7.47%	9.56%
2021	26.89%	28.71%	$234.33	18.48%	16.55%	10.66%	9.52%	9.76%
2022	−19.44%	−18.11%	$191.89	9.43%	12.56%	8.80%	9.80%	7.64%
2023	24.23%	26.29%	$242.34	15.69%	12.03%	13.97%	9.69%	7.56%
2024	23.31%	25.02%	$302.97	14.53%	13.10%	13.88%	10.35%	7.70%
High	34.11%	37.58%	---	28.56%	19.21%	18.93%	17.88%	17.25%
Low	−38.49%	−37.00%	---	−2.35%	−1.38%	4.24%	5.62%	7.56%
Median	12.40%	15.79%	---	14.09%	12.75%	10.76%	11.25%	10.26%
Year	Change in Index	Total Annual Return, including dividends	Value of $1.00 invested on January 1, 1970	Annualized Return over
				5 years	10 years	15 years	20 years	25 years

The S&P 500’s record high of 6,144.15 was set on February 19, 2025. The benchmark index fell as low as 4,982.77 on April 8, about 18.9% below that high, before staging a sharp recovery.

See also

• List of S&P 500 companies
• SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
• S&P Dow Jones Indices

References

1. Valetkevitch, Caroline (May 6, 2013). "Key dates and milestones in the S&P 500's history". Reuters.
2. "S&P 500®". S&P Global.
3. "S&P U.S. Indices Methodology" (PDF). S&P Global. March 2025.
4. "iShares Core S&P 500 ETF". iShares.
5. "S&P 500 INDEX (^SPX)". Choose Max (time period), "Historical prices", "monthly": Yahoo Finance.
6. "S&P 500". Encyclopædia Britannica.
7. S&P Dividend Aristocrats Indices Methodology (PDF) (Report). S&P Dow Jones Indices. September 1, 2023. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 23, 2023.
8. "How tariffs are forecast to affect US stocks". Goldman Sachs. February 7, 2025.
9. "Global Business Cycle Indicators". The Conference Board.
10. "Yahoo! Finance: ^GSPC". Yahoo! Finance.
11. "Google Finance: .INX". Google Finance.
12. "S&P 500 Index Quote". MarketWatch.
13. Chang, Ellen (June 28, 2019). "7 S&P Index Funds to Buy Now". U.S. News & World Report.
14. Thune, Kent. "The Best S&P 500 Index Funds". The Balance. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023.
15. "SPXL SPXS". Direxion.
16. "Our History". S&P Global.
17. Riggs, Thomas, ed. (2015). "Standard & Poor's". Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Gale. p. 1256. Gale CX3611000855.
18. "Vast stock wire network being extended to coast". The New York Times. June 4, 1962.
19. Duggan, Wayne. "This Day In Market History, June 13: S&P 500 Quotes Delivered Every 15 Seconds - SPDR S&P 500 (ARCA:SPY)". Benzinga. Retrieved 2025-05-13.
20. "Standard & Poor's Announces Changes to U.S. Investable Weight Factors and Final Float Transition Schedule". March 9, 2005.
21. "Termination of Trading, Conversion and Delisting of Standard-Size Standard and Poor's 500 Stock Price Index Futures and Options on Standard and Poor's 500 Stock Price Index Futures Contracts" (PDF). CME Group. August 6, 2021.
22. "S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Update to S&P Composite 1500 Market Cap Guidelines" (PDF). S&P Global. January 2, 2025.
23. "S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Update to S&P Composite 1500 Market Cap Guidelines" (PDF). S&P Global. January 4, 2022.
24. "S&P 500 Index". Corporate Finance Institute.
25. Fitzgerald, Jay. "Stock Price Reactions to Index Inclusion". National Bureau of Economic Research.
26. Krantz, Matt (July 5, 2013). "Do stocks soar if they get into the S&P 500?". USA TODAY.
27. Kun Li, Xin; Wei, Shang-Jin (October 2021). "Is Stock Index Membership for Sale?". National Bureau of Economic Research.
28. Lee, Justina (October 12, 2021). "S&P 500 Membership May Be 'For Sale,' NBER Research Suggests". Bloomberg News.
29. Santoli, Michael (June 18, 2017). "The S&P 500 has already met its average return for a full year, but don't expect it to stay here". CNBC.
30. Carlozo, Lou (October 2, 2018). "Why Investors Love the S&P 500". U.S. News & World Report.
31. Carlson, Ben (February 27, 2020). "Worried about the stock market? Resist the urge to panic". Fortune.