iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF

IJR

Market cap $87.9B

The small caps are starting to get cheap again after the latest round of market selling concentrated in the AI growth names.

And what to look for when shopping for one.

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Small Cap Blend segment of the US equity market, the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on May 22, 2000.

The Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF (SPHB) is up a sizzling 27.3% year to date. SPHB targets the stocks in the S&P 500 with the highest sensitivity to market movements, or beta, over the past 12 months.

Small-cap stocks, represented by iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF, are valued near a cyclical bottom relative to large-cap funds such as Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares. IJR historically offered a compelling size premium and competitive growth compared to mega-cap-heavy indices like VTI and QQQ. The size premium turned negative around 2019 and has stayed negative since then.

CNBC's “Halftime Report” team discuss their top stocks and final trades.

Earlier this year, when President Trump's tariff-induced market volatility spurred the “sell America” trade, investors vacated large-cap U.S. equities and sought out alternative trades that could minimize the fallout. But it turns out that not all of those outflows ended up overseas.

The iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF has a strategy based on the S&P 600 index, the U.S. small-cap barometer. IJR has beaten the market proxy IVV since its inception in 2000, but this result was chiefly secured by its resilience to the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. IJR's edge over IVV disappeared in the 2010s—its returns over 2015–2025 were much weaker than those of the S&P 500 ETF, with higher volatility.

Looking for broad exposure to the Small Cap Blend segment of the US equity market? You should consider the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on May 22, 2000.

Most investors understand that small-cap stocks often offer enormous upside potential. But they also bring considerably more risk to the table.