Equal-weight S&P 500 is down 2.8% in a month as the cap-weighted fund fell 1.1%
Friday, September 11, 2026: equal-weight S&P 500 RSP -2.81% over one month vs S&P 500 SPY -1.06%; Friday SPY +0.85%, RSP +0.80% as 3,123 of 5,808 U.S. stocks advanced.
For a month the S&P 500 has not been a good description of U.S. stocks. The cap-weighted fund SPY is down 1.06%. The equal-weight S&P 500 fund RSP is down 2.81%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 fund IWM is down 4.57%. Friday, when the two S&P 500 funds closed 0.05 percentage points apart, did not close that gap.
Equal-weight and small caps took the month's loss
- −4.6%
- −3.8%
- −2.8%
- −1.2%
- −1.1%
Friday, a majority advanced. The largest weight sat out
Counted across 5,808 U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, Nasdaq and NYSE American (funds, foreign listings, FX and crypto symbols excluded), 3,123 advanced, 2,427 declined and 258 were unchanged. That is a 54% advance rate: a slight majority.
Sixteen of 20 mega-caps finished higher. Nvidia, the largest holding in SPY at 8.1%, was little changed, down 0.09%.
The Nasdaq-100 did not tell the same Friday story. The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ gained 0.87%. The equal-weight Nasdaq-100 fund QQEW gained 0.41%, a 0.46 percentage-point gap. Advanced Micro Devices rose 2.5% and Cisco 4.4%.
Dell and HPE did the work equal-weight needed
Inside RSP, the lift came from names the cap-weighted index barely feels. Dell Technologies closed up 12%, a session CNBC had at 10% during the day, extending a 355% year-to-date gain. Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 12% and HP 8.4%. Barron's tied the hardware group to Oracle's AI infrastructure spending. Oracle shares, the company doing the spending, fell 1.8%.
Dell and HPE rallied; Nvidia and Oracle did not
- +12%
- +12%
- +8.4%
- −0.09%
- −1.8%
Server and PC suppliers, each a fraction of a percent in equal-weight, did the work the largest index weight did not.
The month the typical stock took the loss
Friday repaired one session. It did not repair the stretch around it.
The month is the column Friday did not fix: equal-weight and small caps took the loss cap-weight only hinted at.
That month also showed up in how many of the 500 still sit above a short trend. By Tuesday, September 8, 42% of S&P 500 stocks stood above their 50-day average, down from about 69% in mid-August, Barchart's weakest such reading in five months.
Year to date RSP is still up 13.1%, 0.4 percentage points ahead of SPY. That lead was earned before this month. If you own the cap-weighted fund and read its one-month 1.06% dip as the market, you have been watching a different line from the one the typical stock and small caps have been on.
Frequently asked
Why is equal-weight down so much more than the S&P 500?
The index's largest weights held up while the typical stock and small caps fell, so equal-weight and the Russell 2000 absorbed losses the cap-weighted fund only hinted at.
Didn't Friday's session fix that?
No: a slight majority of stocks advanced and the two S&P 500 funds finished about 0.05 percentage points apart, which left the month's gap intact.
What lifted equal-weight on Friday?
Server and PC suppliers Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP jumped sharply, names that are a fraction of a percent in the cap-weighted index, while Nvidia was little changed and Oracle fell.
Is equal-weight still ahead for the year?
Yes, it is up 13.1% year to date and 0.4 percentage points ahead of the cap-weighted fund, but that lead was earned before this month.