Sector Update for December 20th

Last week's sector update found a largely range bound market. As I recently posted, the majority of stocks in the basket that I follow have not been solidly trending higher or lower. Here's how Technical Strength breaks down, sector by sector as of Friday's close:

MATERIALS: -80 (43%)
INDUSTRIAL: -100 (74%)
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY: +100 (75%)
CONSUMER STAPLES: +60 (63%)
ENERGY: -140 (33%)
HEALTH CARE: +220 (78%)
FINANCIAL: -280 (57%)
TECHNOLOGY: -60 (74%)

What we see is that most the sectors are in neutral mode (-100 to +100), with financial shares showing the greatest weakness and health care displaying relative strength.

Next to the Technical Strength numbers (in parentheses) is the percentage of stocks in each sector trading above their 20-day moving averages, as reported by Decision Point. This gives us a longer-term perspective than Technical Strength. Notice that the commodity-related sectors, materials and energy, are displaying relative weakness, followed by financial stocks. Recessionary themes continue to impact this market.

Note: For those wanting to stay on top of these numbers, Technical Strength and percentage of S&P 500 stocks above their moving averages are updated in the morning, prior to trading days, via my Twitter feed (subscription is free).
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