Is it the year of the equal-weighted S&P 500 Index?

Fisher Funds chief investment officer Ashley Gardyne says the European, Japanese and emerging markets all out-performed the US S&P 500 Index in 2025, even though the latter still managed 17% growth.

“A lot of that was driven by AI owners. Without them, it would’ve been quite a bit weaker,” Gardyne says.

The problem with the headline US index is that about 40% is tech firms with about seven individual stocks dominating, meaning investors in funds tracking the benchmark index are no longer getting the diversified exposure to US stocks that such funds used to deliver.

While the exposure to the AI wave has been working well, “it gets to the point where that concentration becomes a risk,” Gardyne says.