Five Big Tech Stocks Are Driving Markets. That Worries Some Investors

Narrowing market breadth can herald declines in stocks, analysts say

The stock market’s rise this year has narrowed around a short list of big tech companies, a sign of possible weakness heading into 2022.

Five of the biggest stocks in the S&P 500 account for more than half of the broad benchmark’s gain since April, analysts at Goldman Sachs found. Of the S&P 500’s 22% advance this year, those stocks— Microsoft Corp. MSFT +1.93% , Nvidia Corp. NVDA +3.73% , Apple Inc., AAPL +0.84% Alphabet Inc. GOOG 1.40% and Tesla Inc. TSLA +3.25% —are responsible for around a third.