The Story Behind a Stock Market Milestone

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Jan. 16, 2020, will go down as a milestone in stock market history.

Source: Shutterstock

The global economy experienced a massive transformation on that day — and most investors didn’t even notice.

On that day, Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) topped $1 trillion in market value. It was the fourth U.S. technology company to reach that level, after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Add Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) into that group — call them the “Big 5” — and on Jan. 16, the five most valuable U.S. tech companies combined were worth more than $5 trillion.

That had never been true before. Mark it down in the history books.

Those five companies now account for more than 17% of the S&P 500 … and 15% of the entire U.S. stock market. That’s up from 11% of the S&P 500 five years ago, with about two-thirds of the value, or $3.5 trillion, accruing over that stretch.

A Changing Index

The S&P 500 has changed a great deal over the past few generations.

Even in 1960 — the year John F. Kennedy ran for president on a platform of closing the gap in the “space race” — no pure tech firm occupied the S&P 500’s Top 5 — not even International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM). It ranked sixth.

AT&T (NYSE:T), General Motors (NYSE:GM), DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD), New Jersey’s Standard Oil and General Electric (NYSE:GE) occupied the top five spots that year.

Twenty years later, in 1980, the top five were IBM, AT&T (NYSE:T), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Indiana’s Standard Oil and Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB).

In 1990, IBM, Exxon, GE, Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A, NYSE:RDS.B) came out on top of the S&P 500.

In 2000, it was GE, Exxon, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO).

Even just 10 years ago, in 2010, the top of the S&P 500 wasn’t very “tech-y” … with Exxon, Apple, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B) and GE on top.

Clearly, the global economy had long run on oil.

Now it runs on data … on technology.

And look at where that’s gotten the Big 5. In the past five years …

  • Alphabet is up 179%.
  • Amazon is up 472%.
  • Apple is up 195%.
  • Facebook is up 185%.
  • Microsoft is up 387%.

That demolishes the S&P 500’s 80% return over the same stretch.

If you’ve ever thought that technological innovation has slowed, you need to think again.

Technology is still the engine that drives our economy and the stock market.

That’s a simple truth … but it also is the key to what I believe is the biggest investment opportunity in the world today.

To date, I’ve found 41 investments that have returned 1,000% or more.

The opportunity I want to tell you about today, I believe, could result in my next 1,000% winner.

The Biggest Crisis Facing America Today

A lot of very well-off people — Big 5 executives, employees and shareholders — got a whole lot richer over the past five years.

But consider this …

At the same time, many Americans are locked in a cycle of debt, dependency and grim employment prospects.

The middle class is shrinking … but not because more people are getting rich. Millions of folks are sinking below the poverty line.

In 1980, the richest 1% of Americans owned about 30% of all household wealth in the country … and the bottom 90% owned about 24% of all household wealth.

But by 2012, the share of all household financial wealth owned by the top 1% had skyrocketed to more than 60% … and the share owned by the bottom 90% had plummeted below 10%.

Source: InvestorPlace

Or, consider that right now, the richest 20% of households in the United States own a whopping 90% of the nation’s wealth.

That leaves just 10% of the nation’s wealth in the hands of the other 80%.

And when you get to the bottom 20% of American households in terms of wealth, the facts are downright pitiful.

The bottom 20% of American households have a negative net worth. Their average net worth is a stunning negative $8,900.

Of course, most of that debt is owed to the richest 20%, who own the big banks and finance companies.

Moreover, the net worth of America’s lower class, working class, and middle class all plummeted from 1998 to 2013.

But the net worth of the richest 10% of Americans skyrocketed 75% during the same time!

The Rich Get Richer

When you compare the average net worth of America’s lower class, working class and middle class to the net worth of the top 10%, it’s like comparing a tiny office building to the Empire State Building.

Source: InvestorPlace

But the most surprising indicator of how badly out of whack things are in America may be the wealth of just three men.

The Federal Reserve recently found that the three richest Americans were Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the legendary investor Warren Buffett.

The Fed also found that the total wealth owned by these three men ($348.5 billion) was higher than the total wealth of the bottom 50% of Americans ($245 billion).

Source: InvestorPlace

Given this shocking inequality, it’s no wonder that huge swaths of America’s cities are essentially slums … filled with millions of impoverished and desperate individuals and families.

Meanwhile, a small group of wealthy people continue to live in beautiful gated communities and accumulate a larger and larger share of the nation’s wealth every year.

Thanks in large part to the Big 5 and other tech companies, the economy is humming, we’ve got nearly full employment, and the stock market keeps rising.

Yet the net worth of America’s lower and middle classes keeps plummeting.

As one of my wealthy friends said recently, it’s as if a giant drawbridge is dividing our country in half.

On one side are the rich — who fully understand what’s happening and are taking advantage of the situation.

On the other side … well … there’s everyone else.

I call this wealth gap “The Technochasm.”

Which Side Are You On?

I wish I could tell you this situation will be resolved soon.

But it won’t.

But you can educate yourself about the Technochasm.

And more than that … you can make sure your portfolio is positioned to make the most possible profits.

You want to make sure you’re on the right side of the Technochasm.

I’ve spent the past year or so learning everything I can about the Technochasm. I’ve shared some of what I learned with you in today’s report.

Now I’m revealing all of my research — including the key reason why the Technochasm broke open and keeps widening.

To do so, I traveled to the most expensive zip code in America to film a special video presentation where I put it all together.

This is a fascinating story that can help you make a lot of money over the next few years.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check it out.

P.S. Something remarkable happened to me recently while visiting America’s richest zip code, which is located far from Manhattan, Palm Beach and Beverly Hills. First, someone smashed my car windows, and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of video equipment.

But the good news is, I also found an incredible opportunity that could make you a lot of money — and it has nothing to do with real estate. I think this could be my next 1,000% winner. And I’m giving away the details here.

Learn more and see my photos here…

Eric Fry is an award-winning stock picker with numerous “10-bagger” calls — in good markets AND bad. How? By finding potent global megatrends … before they take off. And when it comes to bear markets, you’ll want to have his “blueprint” in hand before stocks go south. Eric does not own the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2020/02/the-story-behind-a-stock-market-milestone/.

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