Equities and Options Market Metrics and Trends
Analyzing Volatility, Market Performance, and Equity and Options Volumes
Published on:
June 1, 2026
Issue:
Market Theme: Small Cap Outperformance
- The Russell 2000—an index representing small cap stocks in the US—is up +18.3% year to date, outperforming the S&P 500 and diverging from the trend of large cap dominance that has characterized recent years.
- We explore historical peaks in market concentration in the large cap S&P 500 and examine whether small stocks typically outperform periods of large cap concentration.
Market Metrics
- S&P 500 (Price Index): March close 7,580.06, +5.1% M/M, +10.7% YTD, +28.2% Y/Y
- S&P 500 Sector Total Return Performance:
- Best = Tech +16.0% M/M / Energy +26.0% YTD / Tech +56.0% Y/Y
- Worst = Energy -5.6% M/M / Financials -5.4% YTD / Financials +2.7% Y/Y
- Volatility Index (VIX): Monthly average 17.3%; -2.5 pp M/M, -3.2 pp Y/Y
- Equity Average Daily Volume (ADV): Monthly average 19.4 billion shares; +8.9% M/M, +10.3% Y/Y
- Options ADV: Monthly average 70.8 million contracts; +6.5% M/M, +30.4% Y/Y
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