The S&P 500 is up double digits this year. The typical stock inside it isn't close.
Through Thursday, October 15, the median S&P 500 stock was up 5.7% in 2026. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was up 13.2% on a price basis, more than twice as much.
Of the 499 index members with prices for the whole year to date, 185 were down for the year. Another 123 were up but still trailing SPY. Only 191, or about 38%, were beating it.
This chart sorts every stock by its 2026 price return. The biggest group, 97 stocks, sits in the 0% to 10% range. Fourteen stocks have lost more than 40%, while 20 have more than doubled.
Those big winners drag the simple average up to 14.6%, which is why the median is the better gauge of how the typical stock is really doing.
When a handful of giants carry the index, an S&P 500 fund and the average stock in it can tell very different stories.
This chart first ran in Opening Bell Daily on October 16.
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