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 1.6% of the market value of the index companies. Its median P/E is 18.4, against 23.7 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 Nov 3, 2026: the average of four factors (momentum, value, quality and growth) computed from public data, against the 461 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 | 23 of 461 | NUE Nucor | 16.9 | $60.23B |
| 2 | 27 of 461 | CF CF Industries | 8.5 | $17.27B |
| 3 | 44 of 461 | NEM Newmont | 13.4 | $119.56B |
| 4 | 45 of 461 | ALB Albemarle | 358.8 | $11.01B |
| 5 | 55 of 461 | STLD Steel Dynamics | 17.7 | $34.06B |
| 6 | 100 of 461 | DOW Dow | — | $23.85B |
| 7 | 154 of 461 | FCX Freeport-McMoRan | 25.8 | $88.30B |
| 8 | 177 of 461 | PPG PPG Industries | 18.1 | $28.06B |
| 9 | 200 of 461 | LYB LyondellBasell Industries | 15.9 | $20.29B |
| 10 | 229 of 461 | LIN Linde | 34.8 | $240.28B |
| 11 | 266 of 461 | IFF International Flavors & Fragrances | 125.0 | $22.64B |
| 12 | 338 of 461 | MLM Martin Marietta Materials | 13.5 | $38.97B |
| 13 | 345 of 461 | ECL Ecolab | 42.3 | $87.27B |
| 14 | 398 of 461 | SHW Sherwin-Williams | 33.3 | $87.60B |
| 15 | 409 of 461 | DD DuPont de Nemours | 69.0 | $20.40B |
| 16 | 411 of 461 | CRH CRH | 18.4 | $65.23B |
| 17 | 438 of 461 | VMC Vulcan Materials | 35.0 | $37.91B |
| 18 | 445 of 461 | MOS Mosaic | — | $6.33B |
| 19 | 451 of 461 | APD Air Products and Chemicals | — | $70.62B |
| — | not scored today | CTVA Corteva | 7.4 | $7.96B |
"—" under P/E: no positive P/E (negative trailing earnings or missing at the source). 1 stock does not get a multi-factor score today because a factor is missing; it goes last, alphabetically. The full S&P 500 ranking →
Basic Materials P/E against the index
| Median P/E | Companies with a positive P/E | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Materials | 18.4 | 17 of 20 |
| S&P 500 | 23.7 | 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 | $240.28B | 22.1% | 229 |
| 2 | NEM Newmont | $119.56B | 11.0% | 44 |
| 3 | FCX Freeport-McMoRan | $88.30B | 8.1% | 154 |
| 4 | SHW Sherwin-Williams | $87.60B | 8.1% | 398 |
| 5 | ECL Ecolab | $87.27B | 8.0% | 345 |
| 6 | APD Air Products and Chemicals | $70.62B | 6.5% | 451 |
| 7 | CRH CRH | $65.23B | 6.0% | 411 |
| 8 | NUE Nucor | $60.23B | 5.5% | 23 |
| 9 | MLM Martin Marietta Materials | $38.97B | 3.6% | 338 |
| 10 | VMC Vulcan Materials | $37.91B | 3.5% | 438 |
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 Oct 5, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, no open-market purchases and 7 sales ($12.0M), filed on SEC Form 4 by directors, officers and 10% owners of 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NUE Nucor | 0 | — | 3 | $5.0M |
| LIN Linde | 0 | — | 1 | $4.9M |
| VMC Vulcan Materials | 0 | — | 1 | $1.4M |
| NEM Newmont | 0 | — | 2 | $744k |
Upcoming earnings dates
Dates announced by the companies themselves, from Nasdaq's public calendar (between Nov 4, 2026 and Dec 8, 2026). They are announcements, not measured dates: each company's SEC history is on its earnings page.
| Date | Company | When |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 4, 2026 | ALB Albemarle | after the close |
| Nov 4, 2026 | CF CF Industries | after the close |
| Nov 5, 2026 | APD Air Products and Chemicals | before the open |
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 Nov 3, 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.