Picture source: Corporate Finance Institute, 2025

The S&P 500, or Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, is not just a stock market index, but a significant benchmark that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States, representing a broad cross-section of the U.S. economy. It includes companies across various sectors, such as technology, healthcare, finance, and consumer goods, with giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon among its top components. This benchmark status is underscored by the fact that it is often used to gauge the overall performance of the U.S. stock market. The S&P 500 is a market capitalization-weighted index, meaning that larger companies have a greater impact on their movements. Investors and analysts closely monitor the S&P 500 because it reflects market sentiment and economic health, serving as a basis for many investment products, including mutual funds and ETFs. Changes in the index are influenced by earnings reports, economic data, interest rates, and global events, making it a key indicator of both domestic and international financial trends.

As of 18 June 2025, the top 20 popular stocks are Apple Inc, C3 Ai Inc, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Coinbase Global Inc, Walt Disney Company, GameStop Corp, Lucid Group Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Netflix Inc, NVIDIA Corporation, Palantir Technologies Inc. Class A Common Stock, Shopify Inc, SoFi Technologies Inc, and Tesla Inc.

Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, AMC, GameStop, Coinbase, and others—are driven by a combination of strong fundamentals, high investor interest, and market trends. Technology and AI-focused companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, and Palantir, remain popular due to their consistent innovation, robust earnings, and leadership in sectors like artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and cloud computing. Companies like Tesla and Lucid gained attention for their role in the growing electric vehicle market. Meanwhile, stocks such as AMC, GameStop, and SoFi continue to attract retail investors due to their “meme stock” status, a term used to describe stocks that gain popularity through social media and online communities, often driven by speculative trading rather than traditional investment fundamentals. These stocks are highly popular because they are positioned at the intersection of technological disruption, consumer attention, and speculative enthusiasm in the U.S. stock market.