S&P 500 Hits New Highs Despite 72% of Stocks Underperforming Index in Weird Bull Market
• Record 72% of S&P 500 stocks underperformed the index in 2023, contributing to a "weird bull market" where index hits new highs but many constituents remain far below 2022 peaks
• Divergence between index performance and constituents has been ongoing issue all year as handful of megacap "Magnificent Seven" stocks drive gains
• Equal-weight S&P 500 index trailed regular cap-weighted index by over 12 percentage points in 2023, underscoring top-heavy nature of market
• As of Wednesday, S&P 500 up 24.4% year-to-date, nearing January 2022 record close, while equal-weight index up just 11.8%
• Nasdaq-100 has fared even better, rising over 54% in 2023 with traders pricing in multiple 2024 Fed rate cuts recently