Sector Performance Since May 8th

Don't look now, but the S&P 500 Financial sector is already down 13.27% from its high on May 8th. That's a pretty big move in just three days. The Consumer Discretionary sector is down the second most at -8.35%, followed by Industrials (-7.89%), Energy (-5.63%), and Materials (-5.61%). The S&P 500 itself is down 4.97% from its high on May 8th, and since then, Technology, Telecom, Consumer Staples, and Health Care have outperformed. It should be noted that Technology actually started to pull back on May 6th before the overall market did, so its decline from its peak earlier last week is actually a little more than the S&P 500.

Two defensive sectors -- Consumer Staples and Health Care -- are both down less than 1% since the market peaked. In the second chart below, we plot each sector's performance from its intraday low on March 6th (the day the S&P 500 hit its low point) and its performance from its May 8th high through the close today. As shown, the trendline heads 45 degress southeast, indicating that as performance gets better during the prior rally, it gets worse during the current decline.

click to enlarge

Comments

[bertil]

Hmmm....to quote a recent US President: "I knew that...!"
Most readers of SA actually know already what happened yesterday!
I think it's time that you now finally live up to this: "Think B.I.G., by Bespoke Investment Group, provides some of the most original content and intuitive thinking on the Street."
The piece above, and many, many others certainly in my mind, do not live up to the quote above. What comes to mind is hardly respect.....but just ill disguised spam!
Minimalism is a 1960's art movement. It belongs to art museums.
I challenge you to, in every posting from now on, actually "provide some of the most original content and intuitive thinking on the Street."

2009 May 14 01:05 AM