If the stock market’s indecisive churn in recent weeks is nothing more than some prolonged post-Thanksgiving digestion, it’s about time for the tape to prove it to ward off concerns that it’s something more serious.
While the S&P 500′s trend remains rather unassailable, merely pausing a hair below record highs and holding above the 6000 level for two weeks, the broader market so far in December has softened up and narrowed again.
The equal-weight S&P is off 3% this month, more stocks fell than rose each of the past ten trading sessions, the median component is down4%, and cyclical bellwether groups industrials and banks have shed closer to 5%. The Nasdaq 100 has countered this pressure with a 4% advance in December, as the growth stock starter pack of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla are up between 4% and 26%.
We’ve been through the arguments about whether narrow leadership against weak underlying breadth is a good thing, a dangerous thing, or just a thing. Markets that rotate around, allowing extended groups to settle down without sinking the benchmark, are generally healthy, if frustrating for stock pickers promising to outperform for a fee.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/14/bull-market-hits-an-early-december-soft-patch.html