The stock market barometer that’s most followed by investors is the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX), or for short, the S&P 500. Launched in 1957 by rating agency Standard and Poor’s, the index is comprised of a “basket” of 500 U.S.-traded public companies with a market capitalization of at least US$ 12.7 billion. The index includes familiar names like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook). Each of the 11 primary sectors is assigned a “weighting” with the Information Technology sector having the largest at roughly 28%, followed by Healthcare (14%), Financials (12%), and Consumer Discretionary (10%). The smallest of the 11 sectors, with each weighted at under 3%, include Utilities, Real Estate and Materials.
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By Charles Marleau CIM® and William Mitchell CIM®