About

The Red S&P 500 Stock Market Map, also known as the Red S&P 500 Heatmap, refers to a data visualization chart of the U.S. stock market in a recession or crash, showing stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index as squares and rectangles, with the most widely held stocks, like Google and Amazon, taking up most of the space. The map is hosted on the website Finviz (finviz.com), among others. All-red screenshots of the map trended en masse in early 2025, mostly due to President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, which caused the 2025 Stock Market Crash. The all-red map was also called the "Xi of Red," referencing Chinese President Xi Jinping, likening the U.S. stock market crash to China's growing trade influence and industry growth. Notably, the Xi of Red went viral when the Chinese generative AI system DeepSeek was launched as a competitor to ChatGPT in January 2025. The Red Stock Market Map became an exploitable in memes about the 2025 Stock Market Crash and the likelihood of a U.S. recession that year. For instance, the Red Stock Market Map was used in abstract Fell For It Again Award memes about President Trump's voters in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.

Origin

Finviz.com^[1] was created on August 11th, 2007.^[2] One of the website's features is an interactive map (or heatmap) of all S&P 500 stocks.^[3] The map was first added to the Internet Archive^[4] on January 10th, 2008. Tweets^[5][6] about the map first surfaced in May 2009.

In 2018, internet discourse about the S&P Map being all-red surfaced en masse, evident in a post by Redditor bigbear0083 to the /r/StockMarket^[8] subreddit on February 8th, 2018, gaining over 420 upvotes in seven years (shown below). The post was about tariffs and tax cuts granted by President Donald Trump's first administration.^[9]

On December 17th, 2018, X^[7] user @clairecmc tweeted about the S&P 500 Map being red due to the tariffs and tax cuts granted by President Donald Trump's first administration, gaining over 3,000 likes in six years (shown below).

Spread

On March 16th, 2020, the S&P 500 Map went almost entirely red because of the COVID-19 pandemic. X^[10] user @fintwit_news tweeted, "Who remembers March 16, 2020?" on the day with a screencap of the map, gaining over 1,700 likes in five years (shown below).

The tweet was reposted on Instagram ^[11] in October 2024.

The Red S&P 500 Stock Market Map became a notable meme in early 2025 when the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek was released on January 20th, causing many of the S&P 500 stocks to go red on January 27th, 2025.^[12]

On January 27th, X^[13] user @MyLordBebo posted a meme showing Chinese President Xi Jinping pushing a DeepSeek button that made the S&P 500 map go red, gaining over 17,000 likes in three months (shown below).

In March 2025, more memes using the Red S&P 500 Map as an exploitable surfaced online.

For instance, on March 10th, Redditor Equivalent_Baker_773 shared a meme to the /r/wallstreetbet^[14] subreddit, showing a Babyface J.D. Vance edit saying, "Have You Said Thank You Once?" with the red map behind him, gaining over 53,000 upvotes in a month (shown below).

On April 6th, 2025, X^[15] user @saddest_miku shared a meme that combined the Fell For It Again Award with the Red S&P 500 Map to form a scene from Neon Genesis Evangelion, gaining over 84,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References