Small Caps Are Crushing the S&P 500 in 2026 | Russell 2000's Best Start Since 1991 | 7investing Live

<p>Everyone calls the S&amp;P 500 &quot;the market.&quot; But is it really? In this episode of 7investing Live, founder and CEO Simon Erickson breaks down what the market actually is in 2026, and why the benchmark you&#39;re using matters more than you think. There are roughly 5,600 companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ, yet just 500 of them make up 80% of the total US market value and the top 10 stocks alone now account for a staggering 36.4% of the S&amp;P 500 index.Simon walks through the numbers behind today&#39;s market concentration: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) sitting at the top as a nearly $5 trillion company, the S&amp;P 500&#39;s $69 trillion total market cap, and why the index now rises and falls with Big Tech and the AI trade. Then the conversation turns to the more surprising story of 2026: the Russell 2000 small-cap index is up 20.7% year-to-date, nearly double the S&amp;P 500&#39;s return, marking its best first half since 1991 and its widest margin of outperformance over the large-cap index since 2001.What&#39;s driving the rotation? Simon and Heather dig into mega-cap fatigue, stretched valuations for companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the worst performer of the top 10 constituents, down 20% this year, 40%+ forecasted earnings growth for small caps, and the under-the-radar AI infrastructure plays like Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) hiding in the small-cap fish pond. Plus, a preview of later this week: three small-cap ideas with 20-bagger potential.0:00 - Welcome and 7investing Overview2:00 - Large-Cap Dominance: A closer look at the S&amp;P 5007:02 - The Entire Market: An Introduction to the Russell 3000 Index8:32 - A Small-Cap Index: An Introduction to the Russell 200010:56 - Why are Small Caps Outperforming in 2026?13:40 - Returns of the Top 10 Companies in the S&amp;P 50016:50 - Q&amp;A: Investor behavior and risk toleranceWant to see all of our official stock recommendations? Visit 7investing.com/subscribe and get your first 7 days of premium access completely freePublicly Traded Companies Mentioned:NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG)Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B)Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE)Indexes/ETFs referenced: S&amp;P 500 (SPY), Russell 3000, Russell 2000 (IWM)Private / Pre-IPO Companies Mentioned:OpenAIAnthropicHashtags#7investing #SimonErickson #SP500 #Russell2000 #smallcapstocks #stockmarket #investing #stocks #NVIDIA #bigtech #AIstocks #marketanalysis</p>