By Daniel Sparks
Publication Date: 2026-10-26 00:07:00
The S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.52%) has climbed around 12% in 2026 as of this writing, not counting dividends. But three of the index’s five biggest companies have trailed. Microsoft (MSFT +0.66%) is up around 8% this year, Amazon (AMZN -0.95%) is up about 7%, and Alphabet (GOOGL -1.24%)(GOOG -1.08%) is up about 2%, based on its Class A shares.
These three make up about 15% of the index. And they all report quarterly results within two days of each other. Microsoft and Alphabet are scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28, and Amazon follows on Thursday, Oct. 29.
For anyone with an S&P 500 fund, those reports are arguably the biggest scheduled test left in the fund’s year. Yet this year’s 12% rise has needed surprisingly little from these three stocks.
Image source: Getty Images.
The index hasn’t needed them
At the end of 2025, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet’s two share classes made up around 15.6% of Vanguard’s S&P 500 index fund, according to the fund’s annual report. This was slightly more…
