Investing in an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 gives you exposure to 500 or so of the largest and best companies on the market, essentially giving you the opportunity to grow your money along with the market. The large number of stocks, plus the index's regular changing of its components based on how they grow or shrink, minimizes your risk.

The three major US indices all continue to look strong in general, as we are heading into the all-time highs in two of three of them.

The S&P 500’s 11 sectors were trading mixed early afternoon Friday, with gains led by utilities. The utilities sector was up a sharp 1.7%, according to FactSet data, at last check. By contrast, the S&P 500 index was nearly flat,

Over the past decade, big tech stocks have carried a lot of the weight for the S&P 500, and it has worked out in its favor. In that span, the S&P 500 is up 198%, while the equal-weight ETF is up around 127%. However, the equal-weight ETF has outperformed the S&P 500 since its April 2003 inception.

SSO offers 2x daily S&P 500 exposure, making it suitable only for active traders due to daily resets and compounding risk. Read more on why I recommend SSO.

RBC Capital Markets on Sunday raised its S&P 500 index year-end target to 6,250 from 5,730, its second hike this year, citing stronger investor sentiment and growing focus on 2026 economic prospects.

The S&P 500 index is meant to be broadly representative of the U.S. economy. The well-known index is also a key gauge for tracking the U.S. stock market. The S&P 500 is what just about everyone uses to monitor the performance of the U.

Stocks often rally when they're added to a major index, as fund managers need to rebalance their portfolios to reflect the changes. With a market cap of $37 billion, the company falls right about in the middle of the S&P 500 by valuation.