17 S&P 500 firms contribute half of all return on equity

The chart below shows the cumulative sum of return on equity multiplied by weight in the S&P 500.

Home Depot accounts for 17% of all ROE in the S&P 500; Apple + Home Depot explain 24%, and so forth.

Only 17 names account for half of all ROE. Take out the top 70 names, and the rest of the S&P isn’t making much money at all.