The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is now at 50-year lows. Here's the biggest problem.

Can we get a dividend cheque successful here, Big Tech?

The dividend output connected the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is nearing 50-year lows astatine a paltry 1.24%, Trivariate Research laminitis Adam Parker pointed retired successful a caller enactment connected Tuesday. The lone little infinitesimal for dividend yields dates backmost to the tech bubble trough, erstwhile it stood astatine 1.09% (chart below).

Over the past 100 years, the S&P 500 has averaged astir a 10% yearly return, with astir 30% of that coming from dividends, Parker said.

Blame Big Tech.

"The percent of companies with a dividend sits astatine 56.5%, not meaningfully antithetic from the past 25 years. Hence, it is intelligibly the largest companies by marketplace headdress having debased / nary dividends that are driving this existent regime," Parker said.

Read more: How to support your wealth during turmoil, banal marketplace volatility

Big Tech names — which person dominated the creation of the S&P 500 — notoriously wage nary dividends oregon minimal ones. The reasoning present is that behemoths specified arsenic Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) are perpetually successful high-earnings-growth mode, rewarding investors with higher banal terms returns.

So there's nary request to nonstop a dividend cheque to investors. Instead, they tin reinvest the currency into the concern oregon banal buybacks.

Where dividend yields basal among the "Magnificent Seven," per Yahoo Finance data:

1. Tesla (TSLA): 0%

2. Amazon (AMZN): 0%

3. Nvidia (NVDA): 0.02%

4. Microsoft (MSFT): 0.16%

5. Alphabet (GOOGL): 0.27%

6. Meta (META): 0.33%

7. Apple (AAPL): 1.16%

But possibly it's clip for Big Tech boards to see dividends, arsenic net maturation has slowed and investors fret astir tremendous currency travel being spent to physique retired AI infrastructure. Paying retired dividends could beryllium a motion of assurance successful these longer-term investments, a invited motion successful the existent environment.

The Magnificent Seven stocks are hovering astir caller lows comparative to the S&P 500, JPMorgan strategist Mislav Matejka wrote successful a enactment today.

"Mag 7 comparative [to S&P 500] is not acting arsenic a harmless haven," Matejka said.

As of aboriginal April 2026, the Magnificent Seven giants person collectively mislaid $1.1 trillion successful marketplace headdress this year.

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a subordinate of Yahoo Finance's editorial enactment team. Follow Sozzi connected X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips connected stories? Email [email protected].

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