Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple lately have been dueling for the top spot. Microsoft is currently the leader with a market value of $3.3 trillion, just above the $3.2 trillion for Nvidia and Apple.

Until it was dethroned last year by Microsoft, Apple had led the stock market for about a decade, and before that, Exxon Mobil sat at the top also for around a decade.

Exxon Mobil (then known as just Exxon) also led the stock market during much of the 1990s until it was edged out by Microsoft and Cisco in the late 1990s tech bubble, and later by GE at the height of CEO Jack Welch’s reign. GE stock then commanded a tech-like price/earnings multiple of around 40.

The mid-1980s belonged to IBM, which at one point hit 6% of the S&P 500—comparable with the individual weightings of the big three tech stocks now. At that time, it was the ultimate blue chip, and institutional favorite. The leader in mainframe computers, IBM lost its tech crown and market dominance as mainframes declined in the 1990s. IBM was a leading growth stock in the 1960s and it took the top spot in 1967.

AT&T briefly held the crown in the early 1980s before its breakup at the end of 1983. For the decades before that, AT&T had a virtual monopoly on telephone service and its ticker T stood for telephone. AT&T also was the top stock in 1926, and it long was the prime defensive stock for income oriented investors. 

It’s notable that 30 years ago, there was only one technology stock, IBM, in the market’s top 10 companies. Top 10 stocks then included

Coca-Cola
,

Walmart,

Procter & Gamble
,

Merck
,

and

Johnson & Johnson
.

The leading six stocks now are tech companies—Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia,

Alphabet
,

Amazon.com

and

Meta Platforms
,

although S&P doesn’t classify all of them as being in the tech sector.

In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, when industrial companies dominated the stock market, AT&T, General Motors, Dupont and Exxon (then Standard Oil of New Jersey) were leaders.

More historical footnotes. When IBM was the top stock in 1980, its market capitalization was under $40 billion, roughly one-80th of the leading stock now.

And in 1989, at the height of the Japanese stock bubble, the five largest companies in the world were based in Japan, led by

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com