Context
The S&P 500,[2] or simply the S&P,[4] is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices.[5] The average annual total return and compound annual growth rate of the index, including dividends, since inception in 1926 has been approximately 9.8%, or 6% after inflation; however, there were several years where the index declined over 30%.[6][7] The index has posted annual increases 70% of the time.[5] However, the index has only made new highs on 5% of trading days, meaning that on 95% of trading days, the index has closed below its all-time high.[8]
For a list of the components of the index, see List of S&P 500 companies. The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.[9]:25
The S&P 500 index is a capitalization-weighted index and the 10 largest companies in the index account for 26% of the market capitalization of the index. The 10 largest companies in the index, in order of weighting, are Apple Inc., Microsoft, Amazon.com, Alphabet Inc., Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, Visa Inc., Procter & Gamble and JPMorgan Chase, respectively.[2]
Funds that track the index have been recommended as investments by Warren Buffett, Burton Malkiel, and John C. Bogle for investors with long time horizons.[10]
Although the index includes only companies listed in the United States, companies in the index derive on average only 71% of their revenue in the United States.[11]
The index is one of the factors in computation of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, used to forecast the direction of the economy.[12]
The index is associated with many ticker symbols, including: ^GSPC,[13] INX,[14] and $SPX, depending on market or website.[15] The index value is updated every 15 seconds, or 1,559 times per trading day, with price updates disseminated by Reuters.[16]
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.[17][18]
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