Behemoths Have Dominated the Market Before, but Tech Is Different

That big tech companies now dominate the stock market isn’t cause for alarm, but the risks are worth noting

As the race to become the first company worth $1 trillion enters the final lap, technology monopolies are dominating the stock market. The five biggest companies by market value are U.S. tech stocks: Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook. Between them they accounted for more than a third of the $2.7 trillion increase in value of the S&P 500 in the past 12 months.

Worse, the top five now make up more than 15% of the S&P, the most for any top five since early 2000. Is it time to worry that the market is getting...