Meet the Vanguard ETF That's Crushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 Despite Not Owning Micron, Sandisk, or Any of the "Magnificent Seven" Stocks
Small-cap stocks are finally recovering after years of underperforming the major indexes.
Overview
Sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) has been by far the best-performing S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stock in 2026 with a 544% year to date gain as of the market close on Aug. 13. Sandisk is followed by Dell Technologies, Seagate Technology, Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) -- which now has a market cap of more than $1 trillion -- Intel, Western Digital, Marvell Technology, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lumentum, and Advanced Micro Devices. So the 10 best-performing S&P 500 stocks are all tech stocks with significant exposure to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) spending.
Given that concentration, you may think that large-cap tech stocks are driving the market to new heights. But surprisingly, small-cap stocks are outperforming mid-, large-, and mega-cap stocks in 2026 -- as well as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 -- which is the largest non-financial companies by market cap in the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC)
Details
Here's why the Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap ETF (NYSEMKT: VB) presents one of the best ways to invest in small-cap stocks, and why the exchange-traded fund could be a buy now.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.