Why the Nasdaq Is Beating the Dow and S&P 500 Today
Key Points
The Nasdaq Composite is leading Wednesday's gains, followed by the S&P 500, with the Dow trailing slightly behind.
Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft account for 26% of the Nasdaq's weight but only 18% of the S&P 500 and 10.6% of the Dow.
All three tech giants are up 2% or more on Wednesday, lifting the tech-heavy indices.
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Wall Street is having a good day, but not all indexes are sharing the wealth equally. Days like these can highlight the structural differences between market indexes.
By noon ET, the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) index has been leading the morning's charge, just ahead of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC). The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) is lagging behind, but still firmly up.
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Why three tech titans move the Nasdaq more than the S&P 500
To be clear, all indexes reacted to the same market news.
- Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is up by more than 2% as investors prepare for this evening's Q4 2026 earnings report.
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock also gained 2% on the expansion of computer system manufacturing facilities in Houston, Texas. The iPhone giant will add Mac mini boxes to the Houston factories while boosting the production of AI servers.
- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) made a slightly bigger jump at roughly 2.5% as management called OpenAI a reliable Azure client despite the ChatGPT maker's connections to other cloud computing platforms.
These giants add up to a 26% share of the Nasdaq Composite index's total weight. On the S&P 500, the trio's weight stops at 18%. That's still a lot, but significantly below their Nasdaq standing.
The Dow plays by different rules
The Dow tells a very different story, because it's weighted by stock prices instead of market caps. Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft are all members of this 30-name club too, but their total weighting is just 10.6%.
Microsoft still ranks among the top three score movers on the Dow today, in third place behind Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and IBM (NYSE: IBM).
Image source: Getty Images.
Many financial service stocks are up by roughly 3% today, including Goldman Sachs. Last night's State of the Union address didn't include any new tariffs and largely steered clear of new economic policies, and the financial sector had been bracing for something worse. Goldman carries a heavy load in the Dow Jones index with a share price of $919 and an index weight of 11.3%. Yes, that's more than Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft combined.
Finally, IBM holds a respectable 2.8% weight on the Dow, thanks to a triple-digit share price of $223. Big Blue is up by 7% today, rebounding from the AI-powered threats to its consulting services that drove the stock down on Monday and again on Tuesday. IBM's shares are still down 7% over the last week.
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Anders Bylund has positions in International Business Machines and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Goldman Sachs Group, International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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