The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest 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 $43 trillion as of January 2024. The S&P 500 index is a free-float weighted/capitalization-weighted index. As of September 30, 2024, the nine largest companies on the list of S&P 500 companies accounted for 34.6% of the market capitalization of the index and were, in order of highest to lowest weighting: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom, and Tesla. The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. The index is one of the factors in computation of the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, used to forecast the direction of the economy. The index is associated with many ticker symbols, including ^GSPC, INX, and $SPX, depending on market or website. Wikipedia