The S&P 500 (SPX) is down today as a major bull of the index lowered his target for it. Yardeni Research President and Chief Investment Officer Ed Yardeni cut his 2025 outlook for the SPX from 7,000 to 6,400, with a worst-case scenario of 5,800. He also dropped his 2026 outlook from 8,000 to 7,200.
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Yardeni highlighted President Donald Trump’s policies as the reason for his lowered S&P 500 target. He said the firm “can’t ignore the potential stagflationary impact of the policies that Trump 2.0 is currently implementing haphazardly,” and highlighted the President’s “shotgun approach to paring the federal workforce.”
With this lowered outlook comes a 0.46% drop for the SPX today. That builds on the index’s 4.8% decrease year-to-date.
Which S&P 500 Stocks Are Down Today?
Turning to the TipRanks SPX heatmap tool, investors will see which stocks are keeping the index down today. Several sectors are suffering as concerns about President Trump’s trade war increase. This has caused the technology, communication services, and consumer cyclical sectors to fall into the deep red on Thursday. Major contributors to this are Meta Platforms (META), Tesla (TSLA), and Salesforce.com (CRM) Areas remaining mostly green include healthcare, financial, energy, and utilities.
How to Invest in the SPX Index
Investors can’t take a direct stake in the S&P 500 as it’s only an index. Even so, they can still buy shares that are listed on it. Some traders might focus on shares down today in hopes of a rebound, while others will likely focus on resilient stocks still up today.
Another option is buying shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the S&P 500. This allows investors to bet on or against the index. One popular choice in favor of the SPX is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).