S&P 500 index

A stock index that tracks 500 publicly traded, large-cap U.S. companies. The S&P 500 is widely followed as a benchmark for the overall performance of the U.S. stock market. Maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, it is considered a leading economic indicator, reflecting future business and consumer confidence levels. The S&P 500 is market-cap weighted, which means that individual components of the index are included in amounts that correspond to their total market capitalization: The index components with a higher market cap will receive a higher index weight.