The S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time all year today, so below is an updated look at where the individual stocks within the S&P 500 stand in relation to their 50-days.
As shown below, 47% of the stocks in the S&P 500 are currently above their 50-days, which is about inline with where you would expect this reading to be based on where the overall index is trading.
The breakdown by sector is concerning. All of the cyclical sectors have extremely weak breadth readings, while it's only the defensives that are holding up. As shown below, Technology, Energy and Materials all have readings below 30%, with Energy at just 16%! In the Consumer Staples sector, 90% of stocks are still above their 50-days, and every single Telecom stock is above its 50-day (keep in mind that there are less than a dozen Telecom stocks in the index). A breadth reading for the S&P 500 of 47% would look much better if the defensives had the weak readings and the cyclicals had the strong ones, but the opposite is the case right now.
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