Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund
Thu, February 8, 2024 | 3:38PM ET
Another day which is more interesting than the SPX net change might indicate with prices just marginally "green" at +0.06% at 4997.37 hovering just below 5000. Both Small and mid-caps are up sharply today, while both US Treasury yields and US Dollar have pushed higher. Large-Cap Tech influence is showing a rare period of underperformancce as FTNT-3.69% , AAPL-0.13% , ORCL-4.65% , AMD-2.92% are all lower. Yet the strength of MPWR, ON, ANET, NXPI, AVGO gains are helping Semiconductor stocks and the broader equal-weighted Technology sector to show gains of more than 1%. Thus, while markets might seem flat today, Tech is actually showing some stellar outperformancel along with Equal-weighted Discretionary. Both of these RSPT-3.15% and RSPD-2.47% are up more than double what XLK-2.78% and XLY-2.63% are showing in Thursday's trading. As discussed previously, SPX 5000 has no real significance outside of psychological reasons, and likely should be surpassed next week.
Fri, February 2, 2024 | 11:57AM ET
Today is showing an extraordinary amount of divergence that's been quite rare in recent months, if not years- Nasdaq is up 1.1% and SPX higher by 0.63%, but these indices are diverging substantially from actual market performance- meaning 9 out of 11 sectors are lower on the day and breadth is hugely bearish, by nearly 3/1 based on advance/decline as well as volume. Technology as a sector in Equal-weighted terms is actually down on the day (RSPT-3.15% -0.18%) while XLK-2.78% and XLY-2.63% are higher by +0.65% and +0.80% respectively. Thus, we're seeing a huge amount of outperformance by Large-Cap Technology that's been rare for even recent months. Technically for those who don't study internals, it appears like the market's having a great day. However, it's often a warning sign if most stocks are falling, but a select few (META-1.70% +20% today alone, AMZN +7%) are carrying markets while the broader market suffers. Since most investors follow and are benchmarked to the SPX, it's right to study SPX technicals. Yet, this large-cap divergence is growing more extreme, and it's just worth pointing this out on a rainy Friday- Have a good weekend All!
