When Performance Matters: Nasdaq-100 vs. S&P 500

The Nasdaq-100® and S&P 500 are two of the most popular equity indexes in the US. The Nasdaq-100 is heavily allocated towards top-performing industries such as Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Health Care, which have helped the Nasdaq-100 outperform the S&P 500 by a wide margin between December 31, 2007, and March 31, 2023. Below is a comparison of annual total returns -- which reinvest dividends -- between each index. The Nasdaq-100 TR Index has outperformed 11 out of the 15 calendar years in our study, with an underperformance of -14.3% in 2022. This was by far the most significant underperformance observed in our study, driven by global weakness in Growth stocks. However, the Nasdaq-100 bounced back over the first quarter of 2023, outperforming the S&P 500 by a margin of 13.9% as Technology and Growth-related stocks started to recover.

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Nasdaq Index Research Team

Nasdaq

Nasdaq calculates more than 40,000 diverse indexes, providing coverage across asset classes, countries and sectors.

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