Getting Close to Bull Market Highs

The bull market for the S&P 500 that started in March 2009 has been on hold for nearly ten months now.  It has now been 294 days since the index made its bull market closing high of 1,363.61 on April 29th, 2009.  The index never declined the required 20% on a closing basis for an official bear market to start, so the pullback that occurred following the 4/29/11 closing high is still just a bull market correction. 

The S&P 500 closed today at just over 1,361, putting it less than three points away (17 basis points) from closing at a new bull market high.  So how has the index gotten to where it is today from where it was last April 29th?  Below is a chart showing sector performance over this time period.  As shown, half of the sectors are up and half are down since April 29th.  While Technology has led the way on the upside out of the ten sectors with a gain of 8.41%, the Financial sector has acted as the biggest drag on the index with a decline of 9.74%.  These are the two biggest sectors in the market, and they have clearly counteracted each other over the last ten months.

The Consumer Discretionary sector has seen the second largest gains since 4/29 at +6.02%, followed by Utilities (5.35%), Consumer Staples (4.55%) and Health Care (2.66%).  Energy has been the second worst performing sector behind Financials since 4/29 with a loss of 7.19%.  Materials is a close third at -7.13%, while Telecom and Industrials are both down around 4%.

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