With the S&P 500 right near 52-week and all-time highs, there aren’t a lot of new lows to speak of in the index.  So far today, for example, the only stocks in the index to hit a 52-week low are Iron Mountain (IRM), Kroger (KR), Macerich (MAC), and Simon Property (SPG).  While the S&P 500 hasn’t seen much in the way of new lows, small-cap stocks have really lagged their large-cap peers which has resulted in significantly more stocks on the new low list.  Through this afternoon, we have actually seen more than 60 new lows in the Russell 2,000.

We were curious to see if there was any specific sector driving the relatively high number of new lows in the Russell 2000, so the chart below breaks the stocks hitting new lows today out by sector.  Looking at the list, we were somewhat surprised to see that the Health Care sector alone accounts for nearly a third of all the new lows today with 19.  Behind Health Care, the next closest sectors are Communication Services and Industrials, each with nine.  On the other extreme, not a single stock in the Russell 2000 Utilities sector traded at a new low today, but with the 10-year yield right around 2.0%, that should not come as a surprise.  One sector with relatively few stocks on the new low list today is Energy with three.  With oil rallying over the last few days, the sector has gotten a reprieve, but as recently as a week or two ago, there were regularly more than 30 stocks from the sector on the new low list.  Start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Institutional to access our Chart Scanner tool which provides daily updates to the number of stocks hitting new 52-week highs and lows.