The S&P 500 is top-heavy, but so are fundamentals
There has been much discussion about the increasing concentration of the market cap weighted indices in the US, with the S&P 500 now showing some of the highest levels of concentration among the largest constituents in history. The top 20 S&P 500 stocks (4% of the constituents) currently comprise 38.6% of the index weight, while the top five companies alone make up 23.8% of the weight.
Earnings uncertainty still extremely high going into Q2 reporting season
As Q2 earnings season gets underway, the level of uncertainty about future earnings among analysts remains extremely high. Despite somewhat calmer equity market activity recently, our data shows that the level of disagreement among analysts regarding earnings over the next 12 months (NTM) is still well above the highest levels reached in the Great Financial Crisis (2008-09) period (chart below).