The equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 outperformed its traditional capitalization-weighted sibling this week by the widest margin in six years
The S&P 500, with its increasingly outsized exposure to Big Tech stocks, fell this week. A variation on the U.S. benchmark index that is not weighted by market capitalization, though, managed a 1.6% advance.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell this week as Big Tech stocks and hot semiconductor names struggled.
Although some of the bull market's biggest winners came under considerable pressure, the U.S. equity market was holding up pretty well by another measure. As investors rotated out of stocks that have been working well this year, they appeared to shift their money into names that had lagged.
The S&P 500 equal-weighted index XX:SP500EW rose 1.6% this week, while its traditional capitalization-weighted sibling SPX declined by 2%. That marked the widest weekly outperformance for the equal-weighted version since June 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The reason for the discrepancy is that, over the past few years, the S&P 500 has become increasingly top-heavy as shares of the largest companies pulled ahead. Because the S&P 500 is weighted according to market capitalization, the greater a company's market value becomes, the more influence it has over the direction of the index. That can make it more difficult for the index to climb when shares of megacap companies are slumping, even if other stocks and sectors are performing well.
But the equal-weighted version of the index allots an equal weighting to each stock in the index, making it a better gauge of how the average S&P 500 stock is doing. Over the past week, the average stock outperformed the "Magnificent Seven" cohort of largely AI-spending beneficiaries.
The group comprises Nvidia (NVDA), Apple $(AAPL)$, Google parent Alphabet $(GOOGL)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla $(TSLA)$.
Investors are taking "a step back" from the Big Tech trade, while the rotation into other parts of the market has left the average stock in the S&P 500 holding up better than the index as a whole, said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, in a phone interview.
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The shift is a reminder for investors of why it's important to stay diversified, since the market's tide can turn in dramatic ways, Baird said.
Artificial-intelligence chip maker Nvidia (NVDA) tumbled 8.6% this week, its worst weekly performance since April 2025, according to FactSet data.
So far this month, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, which aims to equally weight that group, has seen an even steeper drop, down 12.9% through Friday's close.
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The major U.S. stock benchmarks declined on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA falling 0.1% while the S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP shed 0.2%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4.6% on the week, but, in a sign of investors rotating into other pockets of the U.S. stock market, the blue-chip Dow booked a weekly gain of 0.6%, according to FactSet data.
While tech struggled, six of the S&P 500's 11 sectors managed to post weekly gains. Healthcare XX:SP500.35, a traditionally defensive area of the the U.S. stock market, had the strongest performance on the week, with a gain of 7.9%, FactSet data showed. Real estate XX:SP500.60 and utilities XX:SP500.55 had the next biggest climbs, each up almost 4% on the week.
-Christine Idzelis
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 27, 2026 07:30 ET (11:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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