Bullish signal alert! Over 50% of S&P 500 stocks are now above their 200-day moving average.

In this video, Dave explains this key market breadth indicator and what it means for stock market trends. He shows how moving average breadth has reached a bullish milestone, what this means based on historical signals over the past 15 years, and how it compares to the Zweig Breadth Thrust. He also introduces the stoplight market phase technique—a simple but effective method using StockCharts tools to assess market conditions in real time.

This video originally premiered on May 13, 2025. Watch on StockCharts’ dedicated David Keller page!

Previously recorded videos from Dave are available at this link.

For months, investors have been on edge over U.S.-China tariff tensions, bracing for everything from fears of empty shelves to rising prices. But after this weekend’s trade talks, where both sides agreed to temporary tariff cuts (emphasis on temporary), stocks surged.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) jumped 1,160 points, while the S&P 500 ($SPX) and Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ) rallied 3.26% and 4.35%, respectively.

Monday’s rally sparked hopes that the worst may be over. Yet analysts remain split: some see signs of a bottom, while others warn this 90-day pause is just the start of a long, messy negotiation.

So here’s the critical question: If this is the bottom, which sector (or industry) leads the rebound, and is it worth investing in it right now? For investors, the answer could be the difference between riding the next bull wave or watching it pass by.

Nasdaq-100 Shows Strength, but Which Sector Leads?

Checking StockCharts’ Market Summary midday on Monday, the Breadth panel showed that the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 ($NDX) had the most percentage of stocks (62%) trading above their 200-day simple moving average (SMA), indicating early strength and recovery (displayed in the Moving Averages tab).

FIGURE 1. MARKET SUMMARY – INDICES TRADING ABOVE 20 TO 200-DAY MOVING AVERAGES. The Nasdaq 100 is the most bullish index above the 200-day, warranting a closer examination.

About 51% of the Nasdaq 100 is made up of Information Technology stocks, while Consumer Discretionary and Communication Services together account for roughly 31% of the index.

Information Technology Dominates the Index

To get a clearer sense of market breadth, it’s useful to examine the sector-level Bullish Percent Index (BPI), which shows the percentage of stocks within each sector exhibiting technical strength.

FIGURE 2. MARKET SUMMARY SECTOR BULLISH PERCENT INDEX. While many sectors have bullish BPIs, the tech sector is leading.

While Communications and Discretionary are exhibiting technical strength, the Information Technology sector is leading the pack, with over 91% of stocks triggering Point & Figure buy signals.

Semiconductors: The Bellwether to Watch

While tech is also comprised of various industries, only one—semiconductors—is widely regarded as a “bellwether” industry. Shifting over to the US Industries panel, semiconductors displayed the highest StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR).

FIGURE 3. BELLWETHER INDUSTRY SCTR SCORES. Among the bellwether industries listed, chipmakers are outpacing everything else.

While my threshold for bullish SCTR reading is 76, the semiconductor industry is the only bellwether industry that clears that bar.

But what might the performance of the Nasdaq 100, semiconductor, and broader market performance look like side by side? To answer this question, I plotted all three on a one-year PerfCharts view.

 FIGURE 4. PERFCHARTS OF SEMICONDUCTORS, NASDAQ 100, AND THE S&P 500. Here, semiconductors aren’t looking so hot, being the laggard of the bunch.

Using VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) as the industry proxy, you can see that SMH was leading the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 last summer, but began lagging the two indexes starting in November. SMH was the hardest hit in the aftermath of the Trump tariffs, and, while it’s recovering, its performance is still trailing both indices.

This raises two key questions: First, is SMH’s upswing a true recovery or a temporary bounce? And second, is it worth investing in SMH in this stage of the cycle (in other words, does it present an opportunity to catch an uptrend early on)?

Weekly Chart Signals: Bear Market Drop or Recovery?

Let’s take a closer look at SMH, starting with a weekly chart.

FIGURE 5. WEEKLY CHART OF SMH. From a primary trend perspective, one that can last years, the uptrend is arguably intact, though facing challenges.

Here are the key points to look at:

• SMH is trading above the 40-week SMA (equivalent to a 200-day SMA) following a sharp price gap up. But can it hold above that level?
• SMH plunged 39.8% from its 2024 high of around $280 to the 2025 low of $170. This is a textbook bear market drop that raises the question: Is this latest surge just a bear market rally?
• On the other hand, a long-term Fibonacci Retracement measured from the 2022 low to the 2024 high found support at the 50% and 61.8% retracement levels. This kind of pullback is not only “normal”, but also supports the view that SMH’s bullish “primary trend” is still intact.
• However, the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) is signaling weak buying pressure. For the rally to continue, there needs to be stronger accumulation, something the CMF has yet to confirm.

Daily Chart View: Support, Resistance, and Warning Signs

After looking at SMH from a broader scale, what might the price action reveal if we were to zoom in using a daily chart?

FIGURE 6. DAILY CHART OF SMH. Zooming in, SMH’s situation looks even less bullish.

This chart tells a tougher story: SMH looks ready to re-enter the months-long trading range it broke to the downside in March.

Should You Invest In SMH? Here’s What to Watch

To answer this question, here’s some points you might want to focus on:

For one, note how closely the stochastic oscillator cycles mirror SMH’s fluctuations. With a reading above 96, SMH may be due for a near-term pullback.

Should it pull back, SMH will need to remain above or bounce at the $210 support range (highlighted in blue) for the current, albeit small, uptrend to remain intact. Below that, it might bounce at the consecutive swing lows—$185 and $170—but such a deep pullback indicates weakness and raises the possibility that SMH may slip back into the trading range (highlighted in yellow) that dominated a lengthy five-month period.

On the upside, SMH needs to eventually clear that same range before challenging its all-time highs at the $281 level. If SMH manages to do so, it’s likely to unfold in a series of higher highs and higher lows, which will take some time to develop.

At the Close: A Bullish Setup or Bull Trap?

While SMH has begun to exhibit significant technical strength, warning signs remain. If you’re bullish on semiconductors, the next few weeks will be critical. Holding the $210 support zone is key for keeping the uptrend intact. A drop toward $185 or $170 would raise serious doubts about the sustainability of the current rally.

If SMH can clear its trading range and build a structure of higher highs and higher lows, it could be poised to challenge its all-time highs once again. Until then, stay cautious and keep a close eye on the technical levels discussed above.

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

We’ve been cautious about the uptrend phase off the April low for a number of reasons, including the lack of breadth support.  While short-term measures of breadth had turned more positive, the long-term breadth conditions had remained firmly in the bearish realm.  With the renewed strength in risk assets over the last week, our long-term breadth measures now indicate a healthy uptrend phase.  

Today we’ll dive a little deeper into one of those breadth indicators, talk about why we track moving average breadth, and show how this recent bullish signal could be a sign of stronger price action to come.

Here we’re showing the S&P 500 on a closing basis along with its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.  Below that, we’re tracking the percent of S&P 500 stocks above their 200-day moving average, followed by the percent of stocks above their 50-day moving average.

Starting at the bottom, we can see that less than 10% of S&P 500 members were above their 50-day moving average at the April 2025 low.  The last time we had reached below the 10% level was back in October 2023, just before a significant market bottom.

While the surge in this short-term breadth indicator over the last month has suggested a tactical rally, the panel above shows how there were still less than 50% of S&P 500 members above their 200-day moving average.  So most stocks had regained the short-term moving average, but were still languishing below the long-term moving average.

As risk assets have surged higher this week, it’s meant enough upside momentum that now most S&P 500 members are back above their 200-day moving average.  Now let’s look at a longer-term time frame and consider previous instances where this long-term moving average breadth indicator has gone from below 25% to above 50%.

We’ve identified eight occurrences of this pattern since the 2009 market low.  In all eight occurrences, the S&P 500 has experienced positive returns in the next 12 months.  And with the exception of the signal in October 2015, we haven’t seen any retest of the previous swing low.

Let’s dig into that 2015 example a little further, and you’ll see what differentiated that particular signal from all the others.

In all the other occurrences, the S&P 500 broke above its 200-day moving average and held that crucial level of support.  In Q4 2015, however, the S&P 500 failed to hold the 200-day moving average, and the breadth indicators soon rotated back to a bearish phase.

It took another attempt in March 2016 before the chart finally resolved to the upside, with the S&P 500 leaving the 200-day moving average behind as it continued to push higher.  Breadth indicators continued to improve as investors began to believe in the bull market of 2016.

I was taught that “nothing good happens below the 200-day moving average,” which also implies that good things can definitely happen above this long-term trend barometer.  At this point, given the bullish breadth rotation that we’ve observed off the April low, I would say that as long as the S&P 500 remains above its 200-day moving average, then we stand a serious chance of further upside from here.

If, however, the SPX fails to hold this crucial line of support, and the index falls back below the 5750 level, then we may be looking at more of a 2015-style retracement as fears rise and stocks drop.

RR#6,

Dave

PS- Ready to upgrade your investment process?  Check out my free behavioral investing course!

David Keller, CMT

President and Chief Strategist

Sierra Alpha Research LLC

marketmisbehavior.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/MarketMisbehavior

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice.  The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.  

The author does not have a position in mentioned securities at the time of publication.    Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.