S&P 500 vs the Fed balance sheet
How do stock prices move against the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet?
| Series | First | Latest | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 (SPY) | 100.0 | 1274.5 | 93.6 | 1274.5 |
| Fed total assets | 100.0 | 928.3 | 99.4 | 1233.1 |
- Latest chart point (2026-07-01) predates the newest source observation (2026-07-24); one input series may be lagging.
Index SPY and WALCL (both monthly avg) to 100 at the shared startSPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY, daily adjusted close, Yahoo Finance) and total Federal Reserve assets (WALCL, weekly, millions of dollars, FRED), both rebased to 100 at their shared start. Both are averaged to monthly so the lines share an axis. QE expands WALCL; a tight pairing between the lines is often read as 'liquidity-driven' equity markets, though the correlation is not causal. SPY's adjusted close reflects total return.
- Data through
- July 2026
- Last refreshed
- 24 Jul 2026
- Native frequency
- monthly
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