2022 has witnessed a recalibration across financial markets, as investors have digested the impact of higher interest rates amid elevated inflation. Despite bouts of optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve would take a more dovish stance, and better-than-expected corporate earnings, Exhibit 1 shows that the vast majority of large-, mid-, and small-cap indices declined through the end of October.

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However, not all market segments reacted the same way to this year’s news flow. Indeed, Exhibit 2 shows that the 108% YTD spread between Energy (69%) and Communication Services (-39%) is the highest spread between the best- and worst-performing S&P 500^® sectors in the first 10 months of any year since 1990. Energy companies benefitted from increasing commodity prices, while some of the largest growth-oriented Communication Services companies came under particular pressure amid interest rate hikes.

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Unsurprisingly, perhaps, sector allocations have been unusually important in explaining this year’s relative returns. One way to see this is by examining the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index and the S&P 500. Exhibit 3 shows that the equal-weight index outperformed in the first 10 months of 2022, as it has done in most years since 1970, and that its 4.8% outperformance in 2022 is the highest margin through the end of October in over a decade.

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Although outperformance in equal-weight indices has typically been driven by equally weighting within each sector, Exhibit 4 shows that the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index particularly benefitted this year from its lower exposure to Information Technology and Communication Services (which underperformed), and its higher exposure to Energy and Industrials (which outperformed).

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2022’s challenging environment has left few places for investors to hide, but the varying impacts of news flow on market segments contributed to record-breaking sector spreads. The impact of different weighting schemes on sector exposures, and the resulting impact on index performance, means that market participants may wish to watch their weighting scheme.

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