Bespoke's Sector Snapshot (11/24/08)

Below we highlight our trading range charts for the S&P 500 and its ten sectors. The light blue shading represents one standard deviation above and below the sector's 50-day moving average (white line). The red and green shading represents between one and two standard deviations above and below the sector's 50-day moving average.

As shown below, the S&P 500 and its sectors (with the exception of Utilities) all remain very oversold, which means any rally will have plenty of room to run on the upside before things get overheated again. Consumer Staples, Energy, Utilities, and Telecom were the only sectors that didn't break significantly below their October lows during the most recent downturn. Financials, Technology, Health Care, Consumer Discretionary, and Materials really took it on the chin before last Friday's rally.

Investors looking for relative strength will want to play the former list of sectors on the long side, while bottom feeders will focus on the latter.

click to enlarge