Invariably, there will be plenty of BTFD’ers claiming victory on Tuesday assuming the rally holds into the close.
Of course if you’re just now getting long on dips, your victories will almost assuredly prove to be of the pyrrhic variety.
Even if the rally hobbles along, buying at elevated valuations all but guarantees that your returns will be lackluster – that’s almost tautological.
Whatever. It’s your money.
One thing worth keeping in mind (and we’ve been talking about it a lot lately) is market breadth or, more appropriately, a lack thereof. If you’ve missed our recent posts on this, you can find a few of them here:
- This Market’s ‘Bad Breadth’ Is Getting Worse, And Worse, And …
- This Was The Worst Week Of 2017 For ‘Bad Breadth’
- Chart Of The Day: Nasdaq Has Worst ‘Bad Breadth’ On Record
As you look out across screens that are largely green on Tuesday, here’s some new commentary on the breadth issue from Bloomberg’s Heather Burke…
Via Bloomberg
It’s hard to call today’s rally – and recent rallies overall – healthy when it’s not widely distributed across sectors and stocks. Some of it may be due to the “anemic” and “hobbled” volume.
But there’s a distinctive lack of breadth that bolsters the few (often tech and FAANG) at the expense of many. Could it be because the market is more determined by big moves from individual companies than the macro?
S&P 500 breadth, as measured by the percentage of stocks above their 50-DMA, is at lows not seen since Dec. 2016. For the Russell 3000, it’s a similar story. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 info tech sector is up almost 23%. The next highest sector, health care, is up 15%.
