Daily Spotlight: Market Breadth Narrows

Summary

Halfway through 2024, sector breadth has deteriorated somewhat from strong levels earlier in the year — but remains better than that at mid-year 2023. Communication Services and Information Technology at mid-year 2023 were high-teen percentage points higher than the benchmark index; currently, they are, on average, beating the broad market by high-single to low-double-digit percentages. While only these two sectors are ahead of the S&P 500, multiple sectors — including Energy, Financial, Utilities, Consumer Staples, and Healthcare — currently are beating or slightly lagging the index’s average annual appreciation of 10% since 1980. Materials and Consumer Discretionary are up 4%-6% year to date, while Real Estate — deeply negative for much of 2024 — is down less than 2% as of mid-year. The Consumer Discretionary sector, one of the top-three performers in 2023, was ninth among 11 sectors in 2024 to date. Spending by consumers, particularly those in the middle and lower tiers of the economy,