S&P 500 All-Time High: The Highest The Index Has Ever Closed

The highest the S&P 500 has ever closed is 7,798.99, on 13 August 2026, according to the S&P 500 daily close series on FRED, which republishes S&P Dow Jones Indices data. It traded as high as 7,816.70 that same day. It has not beaten either figure since.

The S&P 500 All-Time High Right Now

The S&P 500 has never closed above 7,798.99. That record was set on Thursday 13 August 2026. During the same session the index reached 7,816.70, its highest level ever, then settled 17.71 points lower at the close.

The next day it slipped to 7,785.76, still the second-best close on record. Since then it has come close once. On 21 September it jumped 1.49% to 7,764.70 and traded as high as 7,779.22, but stopped 34.29 points short of the closing record. On 23 September it closed at 7,706.03, which is 1.19% below the record.

Why Some Sites Still Say 7,609.78

Search for the S&P 500 record and some pages still give you 7,609.78. That was the right answer for two months. The index closed at 7,609.78 on 2 June 2026 and did not beat it until 4 August, when it closed at 7,736.52. It then set two more records, on 7 August and 13 August.

Pages written in June or July and not updated since still show the old number. If a source quotes 7,609.78 as the current record, check the date on it. A different mix-up is possible this month. The Nasdaq Composite closed at records on 21 and 22 September. The S&P 500 did not, so a record-high headline from that week may be about the Nasdaq.

Verified Source Ledger

Every figure below was checked on 24 September 2026. Closes come from the FRED SP500 series. The intraday high comes from Yahoo Finance. Point gaps and percentages are calculated from the closes shown.

Every Record Close In 2026, Month By Month

The S&P 500 set 27 record closes in 2026, all between January and August. They came in bursts, with long gaps between them.

Round-Number Milestones

Round numbers get the headlines. These are the first closes above each one.

The jump from 7,000 to 7,500 took 29 days. The index has still not closed above 7,800. The record close of 7,798.99 missed it by 1.01 points.

What The Gap Costs On ES And MES

The E-mini S&P 500 future (ES) moves 50 US dollars per index point. The Micro E-mini (MES) moves 5 dollars. That is why a gap that looks small as a percentage is large inside an evaluation account.

A 1.49% day like 21 September is 5,710 dollars on one ES contract. On an account with a 2,000 dollar daily loss limit, that move against you is nearly three times the limit. Size to the point value, not the percentage. The position size calculator does the sum for you.

ES trades almost 24 hours a day, so ES charts print their own highs outside cash-market hours. Your platform’s all-time high for ES will not match 7,816.70, and that is normal.

The drawdown model matters as much as size. A trailing drawdown follows your account’s peak equity, so a fast run-up that reverses in the same session can lift your floor before price comes back. We compare the models in trailing vs static drawdown, and you can test a position against your limit with the drawdown calculator.

The top three firms in our futures prop firm rankings are Lucid Trading (8.4), Tradeify (8.4) and Alpha Futures (8.3). If you trade the index as a CFD, usually listed as US500 or SPX500, see the CFD prop firm rankings instead.

S&P 500 Versus Dow And Nasdaq Right Now

All three major US indices set records in 2026, but on different days. On 23 September the Nasdaq was closest to its record and the Dow was furthest from its own.

All three closes and records come from FRED. Our Dow Jones all-time high and Nasdaq all-time high pages cover those two records in more detail.

FAQ

What is the highest the S&P 500 has ever been?

The highest level the S&P 500 has ever reached is 7,816.70, during the session on 13 August 2026. Its highest close is 7,798.99, set the same day. Neither record has been beaten since.

What is the highest S&P 500 close ever?

7,798.99, on 13 August 2026. It beat the previous record close of 7,757.64 from 7 August. The index has not closed above it since.

Is the S&P 500 at an all-time high right now?

No. On 23 September 2026 it closed at 7,706.03, which is 92.96 points or 1.19% below the record. The closest it has come since August was 7,764.70 on 21 September.

How many all-time highs has the S&P 500 hit in 2026?

27 record closes so far, all between 6 January and 13 August. May had the most, with 11. There were none in February, March, July or so far in September.

Why do some sites say the S&P 500 record is 7,609.78?

Because that was the record from 2 June until 4 August 2026. Pages written in that window and not updated since still show it. The current record close is 7,798.99, from 13 August.

When did the S&P 500 first close above 7,500?

On 14 May 2026, at 7,501.24. It had first closed above 7,000 only 29 days earlier, on 15 April. It has not yet closed above 7,800.

Does an ES futures chart show the same record?

Not exactly. ES trades almost 24 hours a day and at a small premium or discount to the cash index, so its highs differ from 7,816.70. Each ES point is worth 50 US dollars, so check the record on the instrument you actually trade.