S&P 500 Sector Trading Range Snapshot; Energy, Materials, Utilities Pull Back
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 05:41PM This week's market pullback has really hit some sectors hard, while others have held up just fine. Energy, Materials, Industrials and Utilities are four sectors that have gotten beat up, while Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Technology have outperformed.
Below is a trading range snapshot of the S&P 500 and its ten sectors. For each sector, the black dot is where it's currently trading, while the tail is where it was trading one week ago. The light red shading represents between one and two standard deviations above the 50-day moving average, while the dark red shading is between two and three standard deviations above the 50-day (and vice versa for the light and dark green shading).
As shown, the S&P 500 and four sectors were trading at two standard deviations or more above their 50-days last week at this time, which is extreme overbought territory. No sectors are in extreme overbought territory anymore, however, although Consumer Staples is close. After today's declines, Utilities is now oversold, while Energy and Materials are extremely close to oversold levels.
Below is an expanded trading range chart for the Energy sector going back to July 2011. As shown, Energy is at the bottom of its normal trading range for the first time this year. The sector blew right through its 50-day today.
Breadth has also gotten very weak for the Energy sector. After today, just 30% of the stocks in the sector are above their 50-days, which is the weakest of the ten S&P sectors.
