Underlying breadth obviously took a hit after Friday’s big sell-off, and below is an updated look at where one popular breadth measure currently stands. For the S&P 500 as a whole, 33.8% of stocks are currently trading above their 50-day moving averages. Seven of ten sectors have readings lower than that, however. No stocks in the Telecom or Utilities sectors are currently above their 50-days, while just 5.6% of Consumer Staples stocks are above their 50-days. Health Care has a reading of just 14.3%, Consumer Discretionary is at 24.4%, and Industrials is at 26.9%.
The three sectors with stronger-than-market readings are Energy, Technology and Financials. The fact that Tech and Financials have strong readings is a positive because they’re the two biggest sectors of the market. Market bulls would like to see more participation from the rest of the market, however.