Bespoke’s Sector Weightings Report — May 2018

S&P 500 sector weightings are important to monitor.  Over the years when weightings have gotten extremely lopsided for one or two sectors, it hasn’t ended well.  Below is a table showing S&P 500 sector weightings from the mid-1990s through 2016.  In the early 1990s before the Dot Com bubble, the US economy was much more evenly weighted between manufacturing sectors and service sectors.  Sector weightings were bunched together between 6% and 14% across the board.  In 1990, Tech was tied for the smallest sector of the market at 6.3%, while Industrials was the largest at 14.7%.  The spread between the largest and smallest sectors back then was just over 8 percentage points.

The Dot Com bubble completely blew up the balanced economy, and looking back you can clearly see how lopsided things had become.  Once the Tech bubble burst, it was the Financial sector that began its charge towards dominance.  The Financial sector’s sole purpose is to service the economy, so in our view you never want to see the Financial sector make up the largest portion of the economy.  That was the case from 2002 to 2007, though, and we all know how that ended.

Unfortunately we’ve begun to see sector weightings get extremely out of whack once again.

If you would like to see the most up-to-date numbers for S&P 500 sector weightings, simply start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional services.  Click back to this post to see the numbers once you’re signed up!

Bespoke’s Sector Snapshot — 5/3/18

We’ve just released our weekly Sector Snapshot report (see a sample here) for Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.  Please log-in here to view the report if you’re already a member.  If you’re not yet a subscriber and would like to see the report, please start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium now.

Below is one of the many charts included in this week’s Sector Snapshot, which highlights the year-to-date percentage change of the eleven S&P 500 sectors.  At this point, just three sectors are still in positive territory, while eight are in the red.  Consumer Staples and Telecom are down the most with declines of more than 13%.

To find out what this means and to see our full Sector Snapshot with additional commentary plus six pages of charts that include analysis of valuations, breadth, technicals, and relative strength, start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium package now.  Here’s a breakdown of the products you’ll receive.

Bespoke’s Sector Snapshot — 4/26/18

We’ve just released our weekly Sector Snapshot report (see a sample here) for Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.  Please log-in here to view the report if you’re already a member.  If you’re not yet a subscriber and would like to see the report, please start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium now.

Below is one of the many charts included in this week’s Sector Snapshot, which highlights the percentage of stocks in each S&P 500 sector that are trading above their 50-day moving averages.  As shown, breadth for the S&P 500 remains below 50% with 45% of stocks in the index currently above their 50-DMAs.  Unfortunately, the key cyclical sectors of the market like Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Technology, and Financials all have readings below 45%.

To find out what this means and to see our full Sector Snapshot with additional commentary plus six pages of charts that include analysis of valuations, breadth, technicals, and relative strength, start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium package now.  Here’s a breakdown of the products you’ll receive.

Bespoke’s Sector Snapshot — 4/19/18

We’ve just released our weekly Sector Snapshot report (see a sample here) for Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.  Please log-in here to view the report if you’re already a member.  If you’re not yet a subscriber and would like to see the report, please start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium now.

Below is one of the many charts included in this week’s Sector Snapshot, which highlights the percentage of stocks in each S&P 500 sector that are trading above their 50-day moving averages.  While the reading for the broad S&P 500 is back above 50%, the readings for the two largest sectors of the market — Technology and Financials — are at 50% or lower.

To find out what this means and to see our full Sector Snapshot with additional commentary plus six pages of charts that include analysis of valuations, breadth, technicals, and relative strength, start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium package now.  Here’s a breakdown of the products you’ll receive.

Bespoke Sector Weightings Report — April 2018

S&P 500 sector weightings are important to monitor.  Over the years when weightings have gotten extremely lopsided for one or two sectors, it hasn’t ended well.  Below is a table showing S&P 500 sector weightings from the mid-1990s through 2016.  In the early 1990s before the Dot Com bubble, the US economy was much more evenly weighted between manufacturing sectors and service sectors.  Sector weightings were bunched together between 6% and 14% across the board.  In 1990, Tech was tied for the smallest sector of the market at 6.3%, while Industrials was the largest at 14.7%.  The spread between the largest and smallest sectors back then was just over 8 percentage points.

The Dot Com bubble completely blew up the balanced economy, and looking back you can clearly see how lopsided things had become.  Once the Tech bubble burst, it was the Financial sector that began its charge towards dominance.  The Financial sector’s sole purpose is to service the economy, so in our view you never want to see the Financial sector make up the largest portion of the economy.  That was the case from 2002 to 2007, though, and we all know how that ended.

Unfortunately we’ve begun to see sector weightings get extremely out of whack once again.

If you would like to see the most up-to-date numbers for S&P 500 sector weightings, simply start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional service.  Click back to this post once you’re signed up to see the numbers.

Bespoke’s Sector Snapshot — 4/12/18

We’ve just released our weekly Sector Snapshot report (see a sample here) for Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.  Please log-in here to view the report if you’re already a member.  If you’re not yet a subscriber and would like to see the report, please start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium now.

Below is one of the many charts included in this week’s Sector Snapshot, which highlights the year-to-date percentage change for the S&P 500 and its eleven sectors.  As shown, the S&P is just barely in the red, but there are way more negative sectors than positive ones, which is indicative of weak breadth.

To find out what this means and to see our full Sector Snapshot with additional commentary plus six pages of charts that include analysis of valuations, breadth, technicals, and relative strength, start a two-week free trial to our Bespoke Premium package now.  Here’s a breakdown of the products you’ll receive.