Magnificent Seven Stumble While the 'Impressive 493' Take the Lead

The idea that Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Meta and Tesla are single-handedly driving the U.S. stock market no longer holds up. The S&P 500 has returned 13.4% year to date, but the so-called Magnificent Seven are no longer moving together: Amazon is up 21% and Nvidia 19%, while Tesla has dropped 25%. Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft sit in between at 16%, 12% and 6%, and Meta is roughly flat at 0.4%. Meta and Tesla have both been pushed down the list of the world's largest companies by TSMC, Broadcom, SpaceX and Saudi Aramco, according to strategist Ed Yardeni.

The numbers tell the real story: the Magnificent Seven are up just 4.8% this year, compared with 16% for the rest of the index — what Yardeni calls the "impressive 493." Fifteen S&P 500 companies have more than doubled in value in 2026, led by Sandisk (+413%), Dell (+255%) and Micron (+207%), and none of the Magnificent Seven crack the top 150 performers. Information technology remains the index's second-best sector, up 23.6%, but energy has outpaced it at 28.4%, and the mega-cap names are no longer leading even their own sector. Part of the drag appears to be investor unease over the sheer scale of AI capital spending from these companies. Forward earnings multiples tell a similar story of caution: the S&P 500 Growth index trades at 20.2 times forward earnings versus 18.3 for Value, well below the above-40 multiple Growth carried in 2000.

For investors, the message isn't that the bull market is ending — Yardeni argues it's being driven by "fabulous earnings momentum" rather than fear of missing out, and the current run, up 117% since October 2022, ranks just fifth among eight bull markets since 1969. Instead, this is a rotation story. The Russell 2000 has hit record highs and is outperforming the S&P 500 over the past year, while tech companies in emerging markets have returned 32% year to date, led by South Korea (+71%) and Taiwan (+62%). Investors who have concentrated portfolios in mega-cap tech may want to look at where the market is actually broadening — small caps, select international markets, and the "impressive 493" — rather than assuming the last few years' leaders will keep leading.