The S&P 500 hit records with fewer stocks doing the work. On Friday, the index closed 7.7% above its 50-day moving average, while only 52% of its components closed above their own 50-day averages.
BTIG strategist Jonathan Krinsky put the gap in rare territory: over the past 30 years, the S&P 500 had never been at least 7% above its 50-day average with fewer than 55% of members above theirs. Friday was also just the third session since 1990 when the S&P 500 made a new high while more stocks hit new lows than new highs.
Tech did the lifting
Semiconductors and tech kept pushing higher as the rest of the market looked weaker. Krinsky wrote that the debate should move from whether AI and chip gains are warranted to “why can't anything else rally?” He warned that if 52-week lows keep expanding, tech may “catch-down” instead of the average stock catching up.
Michael Burry made the same narrow-rally anxiety louder. The former Scion Asset Management chief told Substack readers the market had “jumped the shark,” pointing to tech and semiconductor gains, a 16% Nasdaq 100 gain in the last month, and a 65% year-to-date rise in the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
The rally still has reported support. An 84% share of S&P 500 companies have beaten profit expectations, the strongest performance since 2021, and April payrolls rose by 115,000 jobs. Since the end of March, the S&P 500 is up about 16% after recovering Iran war-linked losses.
Krinsky’s number now sits under the record: 52% of S&P 500 components above their own 50-day averages. If that share keeps falling while the index makes highs, the record run stays top-heavy.
