Crude prices rose after U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, marking the first American strike in weeks. Iran retaliated with its own attacks. Stock futures point to a subdued open, while shorter-term Treasury yields surrendered gains from Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech.

Passive investing dominates the U.S., but index-fund owners face active strategy choices. Standard S&P 500 funds weight by market capitalization, giving megacaps outsized influence. Equal-weighted S&P 500 funds assign each stock 0.2% and rebalance quarterly — selling winners, buying losers.

The standard index outperformed its equal-weighted counterpart for the past decade and trailing 12 months. Recently, however, the equal-weighted approach has pulled ahead. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index is up 16.3% versus 13.5% for the regular index. Megacaps such as Tesla and Microsoft have lagged the broader market, boosting the equal-weighted strategy's relative performance.