The 'S&P 493' reveals a very different U.S. economy WaPo [View all]

On its face, 2025 has been a good year for the stock market. The S&P 500 was dragged out of its tariff-induced springtime slump by a small subset of AI-forward power players whose spectacular gains defied an otherwise softening economy. Even now, despite a rocky November, the benchmark index is up more than 12 percent since the start of the year.

A group of trillion-dollar brands known as the “Magnificent Seven” — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — has been at the forefront of those gains, thanks in large part to corporate spending and intense interest in artificial intelligence. But economists and investors are raising concerns about the companies that aren’t part of the AI investment boom — in other words, most businesses in the United States. An index that leaves out the seven high-flying tech firms — call it the S&P 493 — reveals a far weaker picture, as smaller and lower-tech companies report lackluster sales and declining investment.

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Some experts are worried that the S&P 500, an index of large-company stocks that underpins the fortunes of millions of Americans with 401(k) and other retirement accounts, has become too reliant on the Magnificent Seven; they collectively account for about a third of its value, leaving the broader stock market heavily dependent on the continued success of “the AI trade,” says Torsten Slok, chief economist at the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

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Publicly traded small and midsize companies have taken a beating by comparison. The Russell 2000, an index made up of the smallest 2,000 companies on the public markets, lost 4.5 percent in the one-month period leading up to Friday, compared with a loss of around 2 percent for the S&P 500. Smaller companies have posted lackluster financial results recently, said Wells Fargo senior market strategist Scott Wren, who notes that a little more than a third of the companies in the Russell 2000 index either don’t make money or are losing money. Smaller companies are being hit harder by a slowing economy, he said, as they have less of a cushion to absorb import price increases resulting from tariffs, and less flexibility to avoid the new duties by shifting their supply chains.

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https://archive.ph/QVUyb

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I cannot post it, but there is an impressive graph in the story that shows the difference between the S&P excluding the "Magnificent seven" and the "Magnificent Seven" alone since 2019.