By one measure at least, the US stock market has slipped into negative territory since the start of the year.
The S&P 500 Equal Weighted index, which gives equal value to each stock, has fallen 0.35 per cent since January, data from Refinitiv shows. That stands in stark contrast to the 9.5 per cent gain for the benchmark S&P 500, where companies with larger market capitalisations account for a larger share of the index.
Although bigger gaps have previously opened up between the two measures of the same stock market’s performance, “there has never been such a strong negative divergence”, said Manfred Hübner, managing director at research house Sentix.