S&P 500 Breadth Improves as 61% of Stocks Top 50-Day Average

The share of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 50-day moving average reached 61% on Friday, Oct. 23, its highest reading since mid-August. The measure rose 5 percentage points and was more than twice its level at the Oct. 1 intraday low.

The share above the 200-day moving average increased 3 percentage points to 57%, its highest since Sept. 9. It has climbed 17 percentage points in three weeks, while the S&P 500 remained nearly flat over that span. The improvement in breadth ranked among the three largest of the past three years.

The gap between the index and its constituents was also visible Thursday, Oct. 22. The benchmark fell 1.2%, even as 335 stocks in the index closed higher. The latest figures add to earlier TokenPost coverage of S&P 500 breadth, which examined how index performance can diverge from the results of its individual stocks.