The S&P 500 enjoyed an excellent performance trajectory throughout 2024, having returned more than 26% in the year leading to December 27. As a proxy for the broader U.S. economy, this index has demonstrated that the economic environment is strong and continuing to grow, broadly speaking. Of course, this is not to say that all stocks—or certainly even all stocks within the S&P 500—have performed at the same level. Indeed, investors looking for outstanding individual companies over the last year should keep in mind that their benchmark for beating the market is quite high.
Many investors make a wide-ranging S&P 500 ETF or similar product a staple of their portfolio. Funds like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) or the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: IVV) offer an easy way of accessing the breadth of the index with minimal effort on the part of the individual investor. Whether you include one or more of these funds in your portfolio already or not, though, there may be reasons to consider increasing your portfolio allocation in order to focus more heavily on the S&P.
