S&P 500 Basic Materials stocks: today's ranking and data
The S&P 500 has 20 companies in Basic Materials today. It accounts for 1.5% of the market value of the index companies. Its median P/E is 29.0, against 23.6 for the index as a whole.
What Basic Materials is and what drives its earnings
What it includes. Commodity and specialty chemicals (industrial gases, coatings, additives), fertilizers and seeds, copper and gold mining, steel, and cement, aggregates and building materials. Packaging makers, which GICS puts in this sector, fall under Consumer Cyclical here.
What drives its earnings. The price of what they sell (copper, gold, steel, fertilizer), set on world markets that no single company controls; energy costs, a large share of spending in chemicals and steel; and industrial and construction activity, with China as the big buyer of metals. Specialty chemicals and industrial gases, with long contracts, are the steadier part.
How it behaves. It is highly cyclical: earnings can multiply or collapse within a year or two with commodity prices. As in energy, a low P/E can signal earnings at the top of the cycle.
The classification is the one used by this site's data provider, similar to but not the same as GICS, S&P's standard: this sector roughly matches "Materials". Counts may therefore differ from other sources.
All 20 stocks in the sector, by today's multi-factor rank
The rank is the order produced by a quantitative model on data as of Sep 18, 2026: the average of four factors (momentum, value, quality and growth) computed from public data, against the 466 index companies that score. It is a calculation, not a recommendation to buy or sell: it knows nothing about anyone's situation, horizon or risk, and the returns of portfolios built with it are simulated. How it is computed: see the methodology.
| In sector | Index rank | Company | P/E | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 of 466 | NUE Nucor | 19.8 | $56.35B |
| 2 | 28 of 466 | ALB Albemarle | 426.6 | $13.09B |
| 3 | 37 of 466 | CF CF Industries | 9.5 | $19.33B |
| 4 | 44 of 466 | NEM Newmont | 15.6 | $130.04B |
| 5 | 76 of 466 | STLD Steel Dynamics | 21.3 | $33.72B |
| 6 | 186 of 466 | PPG PPG Industries | 15.0 | $23.23B |
| 7 | 289 of 466 | MLM Martin Marietta Materials | 12.1 | $34.84B |
| 8 | 293 of 466 | FCX Freeport-McMoRan | 35.1 | $102.73B |
| 9 | 346 of 466 | IFF International Flavors & Fragrances | 72.8 | $21.17B |
| 10 | 355 of 466 | CRH CRH | 15.2 | $57.31B |
| 11 | 356 of 466 | DOW Dow | — | $20.75B |
| 12 | 373 of 466 | LIN Linde | 29.7 | $212.24B |
| 13 | 378 of 466 | SHW Sherwin-Williams | 29.6 | $77.86B |
| 14 | 382 of 466 | ECL Ecolab | 36.2 | $75.54B |
| 15 | 406 of 466 | CTVA Corteva | 53.0 | $53.73B |
| 16 | 412 of 466 | VMC Vulcan Materials | 28.4 | $31.21B |
| 17 | 419 of 466 | DD DuPont de Nemours | 286.7 | $17.42B |
| 18 | 436 of 466 | LYB LyondellBasell Industries | — | $20.01B |
| 19 | 461 of 466 | MOS Mosaic | — | $7.78B |
| 20 | 462 of 466 | APD Air Products and Chemicals | — | $63.28B |
"—" under P/E: no positive P/E (negative trailing earnings or missing at the source). The full S&P 500 ranking →
Basic Materials P/E against the index
| Median P/E | Companies with a positive P/E | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Materials | 29.0 | 16 of 20 |
| S&P 500 | 23.6 | 474 of 500 |
The median is the company in the middle: a few firms with near-zero earnings and huge P/Es do not move it, which is what happens to the average. Loss-making companies have no P/E and are left out.
Guide: P/E ratio explained · all guides
The 10 largest in the sector by market cap
| # | Company | Market cap | Weight in sector | Rank today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LIN Linde | $212.24B | 19.8% | 373 |
| 2 | NEM Newmont | $130.04B | 12.1% | 44 |
| 3 | FCX Freeport-McMoRan | $102.73B | 9.6% | 293 |
| 4 | SHW Sherwin-Williams | $77.86B | 7.3% | 378 |
| 5 | ECL Ecolab | $75.54B | 7.0% | 382 |
| 6 | APD Air Products and Chemicals | $63.28B | 5.9% | 462 |
| 7 | CRH CRH | $57.31B | 5.3% | 355 |
| 8 | NUE Nucor | $56.35B | 5.3% | 20 |
| 9 | CTVA Corteva | $53.73B | 5.0% | 406 |
| 10 | MLM Martin Marietta Materials | $34.84B | 3.3% | 289 |
Total market value (price times shares outstanding), without the float adjustment S&P applies: the weight is indicative. Companies with two share classes count once.
Insider buying and selling in the last 30 days
From Aug 19, 2026 to Sep 18, 2026, 2 open-market purchases ($1.0M) and 6 sales ($11.8M), filed on SEC Form 4 by directors, officers and 10% owners of 6 companies in the sector. Counted by trade date; grants, option exercises and transfers between the same insider's accounts are left out.
| Company | Buys | Amount | Sales | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCX Freeport-McMoRan | 0 | — | 2 | $6.6M |
| VMC Vulcan Materials | 0 | — | 1 | $3.9M |
| ECL Ecolab | 1 | $1.0M | 0 | — |
| NEM Newmont | 0 | — | 2 | $846k |
| MOS Mosaic | 0 | — | 1 | $509k |
| PPG PPG Industries | 1 | $1k | 0 | — |
Upcoming earnings dates
Dates announced by the companies themselves, from Nasdaq's public calendar (between Sep 21, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026). They are announcements, not measured dates: each company's SEC history is on its earnings page.
| Date | Company | When |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 19, 2026 | STLD Steel Dynamics | no time announced |
| Oct 22, 2026 | DOW Dow | no time announced |
| Oct 22, 2026 | FCX Freeport-McMoRan | no time announced |
| Oct 22, 2026 | NEM Newmont | no time announced |
Who reports this week across the S&P 500 →
The other S&P 500 sectors
- Communication Services
- Consumer Cyclical
- Consumer Defensive
- Energy
- Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Industrials
- Real Estate
- Technology
- Utilities
Dividend yields in Basic Materials and across the S&P 500 →
Sources: sector classification, market cap and P/E from the market-data provider (Yahoo Finance), as of the latest close downloaded; Quant500 multi-factor ranking of Sep 18, 2026; SEC Form 4 (EDGAR); Nasdaq public calendar. P/E is trailing twelve months and the median is taken per company, not per share class. Not investment advice.