Investing in the S&P 500 Mutual and exchange-traded funds
to increase their chance of entering the S&P 500 Index-even without meeting the full criteria for inclusion. In October 2021, Bloomberg reported that a study alleged that some companies purchase ratings from S&P Global Inc. 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. The index is associated with many ticker symbols, including ^GSPC, INX, and $SPX, depending on market or website. The index is one of the factors in computation of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, used to forecast the direction of the economy.
In 2017, companies in the index derived on average 72% of their revenue in the United States. The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. As of September 30, 2021, the nine largest companies on the list of S&P 500 companies accounted for 28.1% of the market capitalization of the index and were, in order of weighting, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (including both class A & C shares),, Facebook, Tesla, Nvidia, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. The S&P 500 index is a free-float weighted/ capitalization-weighted index. As of December 31, 2020, more than $5.4 trillion was invested in assets tied to the performance of the index. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. Logarithmic graphs of S&P 500 index with and without inflation and with best fit lines